Finance Minister says Orissa not ready to implement proposed Goods and Services tax from Ist April      

The Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai here said on reply of the media persons on Friday that the implementation of proposed Goods and Services tax (GST) is not possible with effect from Ist April 2010 as the constitution has not yet been amended and the rate of GST to be collected is yet to be decided. So it is expected to be implemented from the financial year 2010-11.

The Finance Minister further expressed that the state government has sought Rs 240.84 crore as compensation towards the loss of Central Sales Tax (CST) for the first half (April-September) of the current financial year. The government will demand a compensation of about Rs 480 crore for the current financial year.

The state government had sought Rs 380.17 crore for the year 2007-08 and Rs 483.29 crore for year 2008-09 and received Rs 137.02 crore and Rs 425.4 crore for these two consecutive years .But the Centre has deducted Rs 47 crore in the year 2007-08 and Rs 57.9 crore in the year 2008-09 towards the abolition of form 'D'.

Source: Orissadiary.com, India, dated 30/01/2010