The
state government has directed the district magistrates (DMs)
and other officials of the trade tax (formerly known as
commercial tax) department to take action against those
not issuing proper bills and charging high rates on the
items of daily use. The state government has advised the
consumers to take the bills on any purchase of above Rs
250 and make sure that TIN number is marked on it.
In
a circular issued by Trade Tax Minister Nakul Dubey, it
has been said that after the introduction of VAT, the
state government has reduced taxes on most of the items
of daily use.
The
minister has accepted that the traders are not extending
the benefit of reduced tax to the consumers. Also, some
of the traders are charging taxes on the maximum retail
price (MRP) which is wrong.
Issuing
the list of items on which the taxes have been reduced
after the introduction of VAT, Dubey said medicines,
cycles, cosmetics, refined oil, pulses, spices, butter,
jam, fruit juice, tea, sweets, perfume, wax, hardware
and match boxes should become cheaper. He, however,
admitted that prices of these items has gone up.
The
minister said that after VAT, tax has remained same on
wheat and rice; and hence there is no question of prices
of these items going up.
He
said that consumers must approach the local office of
commercial tax, in case, the shopkeepers are charging
high rates. The minister has also directed the officials
of commercial tax department to expedite the process of
issuing TIN numbers to the traders so that there should
be no confusion among the consumers.
It
may be mentioned that opposition parties, including
Samajwadi Party and Bhartiya Janta Party, had stalled
the proceedings of budget session of the Assembly on
Monday against the price hike.
After
the ruckus of the opposition parties, the state
government issued a circular on Tuesday clarifying the
rates of VAT and issued directives for action against
traders charging high rates.
