Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar showed his concern about the implementation of the GST in the state and assured that the government would take care of no revenue-loss after the application of GST. The discussion was held at Kalina campus of the University of Mumbai (MU), where prominent personalities like Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan was also present.
The whole discussion was interpreting that the GST regime would be killing some of the revenue which a state generates on its own, and while the GST applied country, there would be a scenario where all the collected tax would go in one sack thereby generating an equal distribution and neutral growth.
The Finance minister has clearly stated that the government would ensure Maharashtra doesn’t lose any revenue. He also commented that “the abolition of local taxes won’t affect Maharashtra, which is both a manufacturing and consuming state. Octroi is only levied in Mumbai but that doesn’t mean other districts, where Octroi was abolished in the early 1990s, are not doing well any more.”
And in the context, Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said, “the Bill should be designed such that local bodies such as municipal corporations don’t lose their autonomies. The Bill must be clear on whether the Central government will compensate for the loss to the BMC from the abolition of Octroi.”
The former chief minister also added, “Money bills don’t go to the Rajya Sabha, which protects the interest of states. The Union government should not bypass the Rajya Sabha”
There were some other abnormalities caught in the flow with the date of applicability for various sections of the Constitutional amendment for the crucial Goods and Services Tax (GST) reform. While the Finance Minister took the matter lightly and assured that the error will be rectified as it is a human error.
