A very complex issue emerged out of nowhere as the government is held to take the territories of the coastal area into their reign. The undertaking of this coastal region is set to be 12 nautical miles from the coast. The decision has seen some discontent from state level officials.
The main reason of discontentment is that these areas of coastal regions gives a considerable amount of revenue to the state government and has been taken since independence. Now obviously any state can run down in panic after listening to the decision to take down this revenue generating area under its control.
Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu was seen opposing the decision as he said that, “The definition excluded the jurisdiction of territorial waters abutting the coastal states. The state has been levying VAT (Value Added Tax) on the transactions taking place in the territorial waters extending up to 12 nautical miles from the coast since independence.”
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As seen from the previous statistics the Andhra Pradesh government were generating a hefty revenue of INR 600 crore as sales of bunker fuels to long-distance vessels and also getting a reserve of gas which is unearthed in the territorial region.
The state is demanding to get the rights of taxation from the higher sea for their own stability while giving a perplexed reason as Ramakrishnudu said that, “If the jurisdiction of territorial waters is taken away from the states it would result in loss of revenue to all the coastal states.”
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A revenue of around 600 crores going up above to 1200 crore for the state of Gujrat has been recorded, the ministry was totally opposing this including TMC-ruled West Bengal, CPM-led Kerala, and Congress-ruled Karnataka.