Tag: vat

Dr Amit Mitra moves Finance Bill that would benefit 1.06 lakh traders

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State Finance minister Amit Mitra on Friday tabled the West Bengal Finance Bill, 2017 which is likely to give benefit to 1.06 lakh traders.

Tabling the Bill, Dr Mitra said it would give relief from payment of tax to dealers having turnovers more than Rs 10 lakh and upto Rs 20 lakh by increasing the threshold of the turnover for VAT liability from the present Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. So long, traders having turnovers upto Rs 50 lakh used to enjoy the benefit of the composition scheme.

From now onwards, small manufacturing dealers with upto Rs 50 lakh turnovers have been brought under the scheme. The mandatory VAT audit report has been removed and this is going to benefit businessmen immensely. Mitra said that the state government would give benefit those dealing with biodiesel by completely exempting tax.

Similarly, those doing business with hairbands and hairclips would not have to pay tax. Such benefits would be extended to those dealing with water heaters, kerosene stoves, leaf plates and cups and terracotta tiles. The rate of tax has been lowered from 14.5 percent to 5 percent on sale of machinery for generation of electricity from waste.

Dr Mitra said the steps would help small traders and manufacturers whose number would be around 1.06 lakh. The Bill also seeks to amend the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 and the West Bengal Taxation Tribunal Act, 1987. Also, the West Bengal Tax on Entry of Goods into Local Areas Act 2012 was sought to be amended.

Dr Mitra also said as an effect of demonetisation, middle class people were finding it difficult to buy flats as they have to pay seven per cent stamp duty on the value of the property on the date of booking a flat or a housing property. It may be recalled that the state government has decided to give Rs 50,000 to 50,000 craftsmen who used to work in other states in the gems and jewellery industry and those who lost jobs due to demonetisation.

The state government has also enhanced the remuneration of anganwadi and Asha workers by Rs 500. The West Bengal Appropriation Bill was passed by the state Assembly on Friday with the House approving Rs 14,708 crore as additional expenditure for social infrastructure projects.

Moving the Appropriation Bill 2017, state Finance minister Amit Mitra said a sum of Rs 14,708 crore would be spent for social infrastructure projects like housing, rural electrification and supply of rice to APL and BPL families. A sum of Rs 3,137 crore would be spent on supplying rice to families belonging to the APL and BPL categories, Mitra said, adding Rs 1,022 crore was proposed to be spent for rural electrification.

 

বিধানসভায় ফিনান্স বিল পেশ করলেন অর্থমন্ত্রী অমিত মিত্র

‘‌মা–‌মাটি–‌মানুষের বাজেট পাখির চোখে দেখতে হবে। ৩৫ মিটার উঁচু থেকে দেখুন। বুঝতে পারবেন সাধারণ মানুষের দৈনন্দিন সমস্যা মোকাবিলার লক্ষ্য নিয়ে আমরা বাজেট করেছি।’‌ বৃহস্পতিবার বাজেট আলোচনায় বিরোধীদের সমালোচনার জবাব এভাবেই দিলেন অর্থমন্ত্রী অমিত মিত্র।

ফের বিরোধী সদস্যদের তিনি বোঝালেন, মুখ্যমন্ত্রী মমতা ব্যানার্জির সরকার পরিচালনার চিন্তাভাবনার কথা মাথায় রেখেই এই বাজেট করেছেন তিনি। বোঝালেন, নোটবন্দীতে ভয়ঙ্কর ক্ষতিগ্রস্ত একেবারে নিচুতলার মানুষ। তাঁদের একটু সাহারা দেওয়ার লক্ষ্যকে সামনে রেখেই এই বাজেট পরিকল্পনা করা হয়েছে। আর এই বাজেটে ভর করেই বাংলা নতুন দিশায় পা বাড়াবে, ভারতসেরা হয়ে উঠবে।

অর্থমন্ত্রী তাঁর ভাষণে জোর দিয়েছেন নোটবন্দী দশায় অসহায় শ্রমিক–‌কৃষকের সহায়তার প্রশ্নে। বলেছেন, এটা মমতা ব্যানার্জির সরকারের বাজেট, তাই মানবিকতাকে বিশেষ জোর দিয়েছেন তিনি। কীভাবে রাজ্যের জিডিপি বছরের পর বছর বাড়ছে আর তা কেন্দ্রীয় সরকারের উন্নয়নের গড়কে ছাপিয়ে গিয়েছে, তার তথ্য, হিসেব তুলে ধরেন তিনি।

তিনি বলেন, নোটবন্দীর ফলে সবচেয়ে ক্ষতিগ্রস্ত ভিনরাজ্যে কাজ হারিয়ে ফেরা শ্রমিকরা। এমন ৫০ হাজার শ্রমিকের জন্য এককালীন ৫০ হাজার টাকা করে অনুদান দেবে সরকার। ক্ষতিগ্রস্ত কৃষকদের জন্য রাখা হয়েছে ১০০ কোটি টাকা। আইসিডিএস কর্মীদের ভাতা বাড়ানো হয়েছে ৫০০ টাকা করে। সবই করা হয়েছে মানবিক দৃষ্টিতে। অর্থমন্ত্রী বলেন, ধারের সঙ্গে গড় অভ্যন্তরীণ উৎপাদনের অনুপাত অর্থনীতির গুরুত্বপূর্ণ মাপকাঠি। সেটাই আমরা এই ৬ বছরে কমিয়ে আনতে পেরেছি। এটা আমাদের সাফল্য। এই সাফল্যের ও মানবিকতার পথ ধরেই বাংলা দেশের সেরা রাজ্য হওয়ার দিকে।

GST rates a victory for Bengal, states: Amit Mitra

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The chairman of the empowered committee of state finance ministers, Dr Amit Mitra, said GST rates fixed on Thursday were a great victory for Bengal and other states. He also pointed out that the rates -0%, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% -would not have any inflationary impact on the common man.

Bengal is likely to gain from the GST regime as the cess on coal will continue for now, along with the ones on primary education and rural development. Both education and rural development cess are linked with petroleum products, which is not under GST now.

Bengal earns a revenue of Rs 700 crore from coal cess and Rs 500 crore from the two others. The state now has a combination of ad valorem cess of 25% on the value of coal production and a royalty of Rs 5.50-7 per tonne, depending on the grade of coal.

Dr Mitra said that all states fought for 0% GST on grain, though a 6% rate was initially proposed on this. “There would have been inflationary pressure due to this. In a state like West Bengal, there is no VAT on foodgrain, so we all fought for 0% rate on it,“ he said.

The minister also argued that minimum rate of 5% -down from the original 6% -was fixed on the insistence of states. “We protested against 6% minimum rate and brought it down to 5%. For industry , even 1% is huge and can have inflationary impact.The highest slab is also kept at 28% as we were against any slab beyond 30%, which Value Added Tax has,“ Dr Mitra added.

Elaborating on the nittygritty of the new regime, Dr Mitra said revenue officials of different states would together decide on items for the standard category of 12% and 18%, keeping in mind that inflation had to be kept in check.

 

জিএসটি হার বাংলা ও রাজ্যগুলির জন্য লাভজনক হবে: অমিত মিত্র

বিভিন্ন রাজ্যের অর্থমন্ত্রীদের নিয়ে গঠিত জিএসটি কমিটির চেয়ারম্যান তথা বাংলার অর্থমন্ত্রী মাননীয় ডঃ অমিত মিত্র বলেন, জিএসটির যে হার নির্ধারিত হয়েছে সেটি বাংলা ও অন্যান্য রাজ্যের জন্য একটি বড় জয়। ০, ৫, ১২, ১৮, ২৮ শতাংশ হার সাধারণ মানুষের জন্য কোনও সমস্যা সৃষ্টি করবে না।

প্রাথমিকভাবে খাদ্যশস্যের ওপর ৬ শতাংশ কর বসানোর প্রস্তাব থাকলো সব রাজ্যই ০ শতাংশ করের দাবি তোলে। ডঃ অমিত মিত্র বলেন, “খাদ্য শস্যের ওপর ৬ শতাংশ সেস বসলে মূল্যবৃদ্ধির পরিস্থিতি সৃষ্টি হাত, তাই আমরা সকলেই ০ শতাংশের দাবি তুলি। বাংলার মত রাজ্যে খাদ্যশস্যের ওপর কোনো ভ্যাট বসানো হয়নি।”

তিনি আরও বলেন যে সর্বনিম্ন জিএসটি হার ৬ থেকে কমিয়ে ৫ শতাংশ করার পেছনেও রাজ্যদের ভূমিকা ছিল। শিল্পের জন্য ১ শতাংশ করও মূল্যবৃদ্ধি সৃষ্টি করতে পারে। সর্বোচ্চ হার ২৮ শতাংশ রাখা হয় কারণ আমরা ৩০ শতাংশের চেয়ে বেশি করের বিরোধী; ভ্যাটের ক্ষেত্রেও তাই ছিল।

জিএসটির যে চারটি কর শ্রেণী বা স্ল্যাব ধার্য করা হয়েছে, তার কোনটাতে কোন দ্রব্য থাকবে এবার বিভিন্ন রাজ্যের সচিবরা আলোচনার মাধ্যমে ঠিক করবেন বলেও জানান ডঃ অমিত মিত্র।

Amit Mitra asks Centre to come clean on GST

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In a letter to Arun Jaitley, West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra says Centre concealed crucial information on service taxpayer base from states.

While the states had so far been led to believe that the service taxpayer base was 1.1 million, new data supplied to the state finance ministers reveal that it is actually 3.05 million—almost thrice of what was assumed so far. This, Dr Mitra argues, has unfairly influenced the discussions, especially on the sharing of administrative powers between the Centre and states.

The sharing of administrative powers between the Centre and the states for controlling traders and service taxpayers in a GST regime has been a point of contention.

After the first meeting of the GST council, it was concluded that the Centre will control all the existing 1.1 million service tax dealers. In the case of goods, it was agreed that goods traders with an annual revenue threshold of less than Rs 1.5 crore would be administered by states and anything above jointly by the Centre and states.

However, in the second meeting of the GST council, the states demurred, claiming the minutes of the meeting did not adequately reflect what was discussed; this forced the council to go back to the drawing board on the administrative control of both goods and services.

“The minutes of the 1st and the 2nd GST council meeting clearly records a tax base of around 1.1 million for service taxpayers,” Dr Mitra wrote in a letter dated 28 October, before adding, “Suddenly, we find that the service taxpayers number has escalated to 3.05 million out of which 2.64 million are shown as active taxpayers.”

“This implies that the service tax base has grown 3 times over 2 years. What is even more surprising is that even a month ago this fact was not told to the states,” he wrote, adding that the figures seem an afterthought, surfacing only after the issue of dual control was discussed in the last GST council meeting held on 18-19 October.

In his letter, Dr Mitra also pointed out that the disaggregated data of value-added tax (VAT), excise and service tax base based on thresholds of Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 20 lakh had not been shared with the states so far. He also added that the states were likely to get the updated data on the taxpayer base only by 1 November, which left them only a day to deliberate before the GST council meeting. The data shared with states by the GST council secretariat was updated as of 19 January 2016.

 

Chambers of commerce laud ‘forward-looking’ Budget

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The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday congratulated state Finance Minister Dr Amit Mitra for presenting a forward looking Budget for 2016-17, with an almost five-fold increase in planned expenditure that focuses on education, employment, agriculture and the MSME sector.

The Chamber said it was encouraging that the state has also been able to achieve a robust growth of seven times in agriculture and four times in infrastructure development in the past five years, while at the same time pushing down fiscal and revenue deficits within manageable limits even against the backdrop of a huge inherited debt burden of over Rs. 2.5 lakh crore.

Rakesh Shah, president of Bharat Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata said: “Amit Mitra deserves rich accolades for the most remarkable accomplishments in terms of the reduction in fiscal deficit and revenue deficit. This is despite large scale implementation of several ambitious schemes and projects for growth in the social development sector, which are being emulated in other States of the country.”

Anil Vaswani, Chairman, CII West Bengal State Council said that the Budget is a developmental one “with a focus on small-scale industries, health, infrastructure and education. The Finance Minister has made proposals to expedite speedy dispute resolution of VAT appeal cases. This will certainly go a long a long way in improving business environment in the state.”

Rajya Sabha: Trinamool counters FM factually regarding VAT

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The Rajya Sabha today had a debate on the hike in the excise duty on petrol and diesel. In spite of international crude prices falling from 115$ per barrel to 35$ a barrel, the government has increased excise duty of fuel by 17 per cent, thus burdening the common man.

Taking part in the debate, the Union Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley said that States like West Bengal and Bihar increased VAT on petroleum goods in the last one year.

Leader of party in Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien countered Mr Arun Jaitley’s claim and said he was factually incorrect.

“Bengal did not raise VAT on petrol in the past one year. Bengal capped VAT rate in January, 2015,” he said. He also mentioned that the rate of tax on diesel in West Bengal is 17%, and the rate of tax on petrol is 25%.

Derek O’Brien also asked the Chair to set the record straight.

KMC: The road ahead, promises to keep

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Kolkata Municipal Corporation in keeping with WB CM Ms Mamata Banerjee’s dream of greener and cleaner Kolkata has brought remarkable changes in every sphere  to provide better services to the citizens.

While various beautification projects are visible and appreciated, infrastructural facilities have also been upgraded.

 

In the forthcoming months KMC wishes to undertake the following projects:

  1.   Installation of CCTV cameras, in successive stages, at important locations along the roads and in the markets in the city keeping in mind the safety of the ordinary citizens
  2.   Setting up call centres at various points across the city, where taxpayers may register their grievances, and also where they would get to know about the latest initiatives of KMC
  3.   Modern compactor system to completely replace the age-old vat system for collection of garbage. This is a very crucial step in making Kolkata a garbage-free city
  4.   Continuing afforestation programmes with greater thrust to create more and more pollution-free areas across the city
  5.   Employing mobile apps to make municipal services more user-friendly
  6.   Using solar power to light up the 300 parks in Kolkata
  7.   Constructing foot overbridges with escalators at the busier points in the city, like Deshapriya Park, Ballygunge Phari, Ballygunge Siksha Sadan and South City

 

For city slums

  1. Over the next five years KMC wishes to bring slum-dwellers under the ambit of various social security schemes and giving them entrepreneurial training would make them financially independent besides, organising continuous awareness camps for slum-dwellers for their overall socio-economic development.
  2. The way Hatgachia-1 slum in Ward 58 has been made a ‘Model Slum’, wherever similar geographical affinity exists, such slums would be developed as Model Slums.
  3. The fire hazard surveys in slums undertaken by officers of Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the relaying of electrical wires hanging dangerously over various slums are to be continued with renewed vigour.
  4. The underground drainage systems in slums would be developed.
  5. Like being done now, the Slums Department of Kolkata Municipal Corporation would continue to build pay-and-use toilets and community centres for members of minority communities, as per residents’ demands and recommendations of the people’s representatives.

 

Projects to be undertaken by the Health Department:

  1. At present there are five dengue diagnostics centres in five Boroughs. In addition, ten centres will be constructed in rest of the Boroughs under National Health Mission scheme.
  2. Health Centres in three wards have been brought under National Urban Health Mission. 87 more wards (a total of 90 wards) will be brought under the scheme.
  3. Each Borough and later each ward will have integrated laboratories fitted with the Public Health Centres for conducting  examination of urine, stool, serum, cholesterol, blood urea, serum creatinine, serum bilirubin, serum uric acid SGPT etc.
  4. Mobile clinics will be set up to serve the poor and very sick patients at their doorsteps.
  5. Modern waiting room will be constructed in Nimtala Ghat and other crematoriums for the family of the deceased.
  6. Under National Urban Health Mission, a Community Health Centre with a capacity of 100 beds will be set up.
  7. Modernisation of Mosquito Research Centre will be expedited so that mosquito breeding and identification of mosquitoes can be done at a greater speed.
  8. In all wards to destroy mosquito larvae, provisions for Gappi fish cultivation have been made.
  9. At present in various canals we are using 20 row-boats to destroy the Culex mosquito larvae. 8 row-boats will be used for this purpose.

 

The Engineering Department wishes to fulfill the following promises in the near future:

  1. According to necessity  there  will  be  more  development  and  construction  work which will be done for sanitation and drainage systems from Borough XI ­ XV
  2. The construction of remaining parts of the new roadway system will be started in Borough XI ­ XV
  3. All country roads of the new Wards 142, 143 and 144 will be concretised
  4. More development and beautification will be done in all main roads of the city
  5. More development and repair work will be taken up in all footpaths in the city
  6. Sanitary and drainage systems to be set up where they are not present as of yet
  7. Measures taken to build new roads and footpaths
  8. Rest of the ghats of Hooghly river bank is planned to be renovated
  9. Foot bridges for the pedestrians will be constructed on main road junctions of the city
  10. Expansion of Kashi Mitra  crematorium,  Cossipore Burning Ghat  and  Birjunala crematorium is planned to be expanded
  11. Construction  of  the  300  feet  long  ‘Single  Span  Steel  Bridge’  at  Babughat  for walking  has  been  taken  up.  With  the  help  of  this  bridge  the  people  can  walk across from Princep Ghat to Armenian Ghat
  12. Expansion of Hooghly bank will be done
  13. Expansion of Matri Sadan at Kidderpore will be initiated
  14. An annexe office building will be constructed at Chaplin Square
  15. More ward health centres will be constructed under National Health Mission
  16. 400 slaughter houses with one modern slaughter house for goats only is to be constructed at Rabindra Sarani
  17. Community halls will be constructed in wards which presently have none
  18. Railing on the edges of main roads are to be beautified
  19. Leveling  of roads  are  to  be  undertaken  in  north Kolkata where road  levels  are higher than that of the houses
  20. Diversification of Boroughs will be done for giving better and faster services
  21. Hindu and Muslim crematoriums are to be further developed
  22. More ‘night shelters’ will be constructed for street dwellers
  23. Primary municipal corporation  schools  will  be  set  up  with  more  facilities  and provided with further opportunities
  24. More parks will be constructed for roadside beautification and a greener city
  25. More road dividers  and  plantations  will  be  done  for  increasing  the  speed  of vehicles on main roads
  26. More beautification will be done at all main road junctions and islands in the city

Tax reforms proposed in WB State Budget 2015

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West Bengal Government has proposed a list of tax reforms in the Budget 2015. The measures are expected to increase compliance and simplify the process of returns and help in solving pending issues.

The State’s revenue has increased historically from Rs 21000 Crore to Rs 40,000 Crore in the current fiscal (up to January 2015). The reform measures as listed by Amit Mita, Minister of Finance, West Bengal, will increase the ease of doing businesses and provide relief to small dealers.

The reforms in the tax administration have been widely acknowledged nationally with Commercial Taxes Directorate being adjudged FIRST among all states in the CSI-Nihilent e-Governance Award, 2013-14 and National Award on e-Governance 2014-15 in ‘Excellence in Governance.’

Amit Mitra said, “These are method of incentivising people to pay taxes. If you look closely you will find that there are incentives which we have provided for people, to come within the tax net.”

Highlights of tax reforms:

  • The threshold for VAT payment has been increased from the existing Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, which will be providing relief to 20,000 small dealers
  • The Government has introduced an attractive tax amnesty scheme (from 01/04/2015 to 31/07/2015), where unregistered dealers can register themselves under VAT and pay the past tax liabilities at a lower rate, without penalty
  • The threshold for filing CA certified audit report has been increased from a turnover of Rs 5 Crore to Rs 10 Crore; thus increasing in ease of doing business
  • Due to substantive changes in the assessment procedure and greater transparency, the number of assessments had a drop of 300% in the last 3 years from 173,588(2011-12) to 40,493(2013-14)
  • The time of VAT refunds has decreased from eight to nine months (2010-11) to just one month. The simplification in refund procedure has helped to increase the refund numbers by eight times and the quantum of refund by 14 times
  • The scope of pre-assessment refund is extended to dealers whose combined turnover of export and inter-state sales, exceeds 50% of total turnover
  • VAT registration will be granted within 24 hours of online application, made using digital signature
  • At present, Profession Tax enrolment is required for online VAT registration. The Government has proposed to integrate the online system so that a dealer can obtain both of them at a time
  • The threshold of not charging Amusement Tax has been increased for tickets with a value of  Rs 60 to Rs 100 for certain list of entertainment show