Sales Tax Dept employees to collect LBT

 

* State Government to effect amendment to the MMC Act to pave way for the change
By Kartik Lokhande 

Though the trading community was hopeful about scrapping of Local Body Tax (LBT), Maharashtra Government has not given them respite. Instead of scrapping LBT or replacing it with some other option, the Government has decided to relieve the municipal corporation of the responsibility of collecting LBT.
As per the Government’s decision, now the employees of Sales Tax Department will collect LBT instead of municipal corporation employees. The announcement in this regard was made in Mumbai on Saturday by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, while replying to a call attention motion in Legislative Council.
Chief Minister also assured to make amendment to Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, if required. Giving a message that the State Government was not in a mood to scrap LBT, Chief Minister said that the revenue of 25 municipal corporations where LBT was introduced had increased considerably. He also said that the objective behind imposition of LBT was to give financial autonomy to municipal corporations.
The announcement of the Chief Minister has dashed the hopes of trading community that has been demanding scrapping of LBT for a long time. The meeting called by Chief Minister recently, also could not yield any result as far as finding out alternative to LBT was concerned. In the meeting attended by Mayors and Municipal Commissioners, some supported LBT while representatives of Nagpur, Sangli, Malegaon, Ulhas Nagar, and some other municipal corporations had opposed it. Chavan had suggested Mayors and Municipal Commissioners to organise meeting with local traders to find out better alternative to LBT. The meeting had, in effect, failed to break the impasse over LBT.
Options like re-introduction of octroi, entry tax, alternative tax, modification of LBT, levy on VAT were in discussion for quite some time. Some traders had suggested levying 1 per cent surcharge on VAT to make up for loss caused due to abolition of LBT. However, Law and Judiciary Department had opposed the proposal. It was estimated that 1 per cent increase in VAT would add only Rs 650 crore to State’s kitty, and hence the proposal was not feasible.
The issue of LBT has assumed political significance also as Congress workers from various parts of the State, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar also batted for abolition of LBT. The main Opposition party -- Bharatiya Janata Party -- has been leading agitation of traders and business organisations to press for the demand of abolition of LBT. 

14-06-14

 

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