|
S Dutta Majumdar, special
secretary, Central Excise, and member, Central Board of Excise & Customs, said
almost all the states have come to a consensus on the state taxes that has to be
subsumed within GST and have broadly agreed on the twin structure of its
administration. But Maharashtra has not agreed to withdraw octroi since it would
lose heavy revenue.
Maharashtra earns more than Rs 18,000 crore a year from octroi, with Mumbai
alone accounting for more than Rs 7,000 crore, a finance ministry official
said.Octroi is only taken in Mumbai, Pune and Nasik. “But there is no way to
compromise with Maharasthra’s demand since octroi is a local tax and the
empowered committee, as a matter of principle, can only allow some crucial state
taxes to be out of GST,” the official said.
However, Asim Dasgupta, head of the empowered committee, earlier said the
government was eager to retain states’ sovereignty on matters relating to
taxation. GST, he said, would not be rolled out without the states coming to a
consensus on its administration.
Nikhil Kothari, chairman of Assocham’s expert committee on indirect taxes, said
even if Maharashtra doesn’t agree to give up its octroi, it should not come in
the way of rolling out GST. Other states, in order to offset the impact of
octroi, can impose taxes of their own, which can be kept out of GST. “State
taxes like stamp duty and property tax have been kept out of GST and states can
formulate their own taxes on the same line.’’
Source:
Financial Express, India, dated
13/02/2010
|
