Nagpur News: NVCC organized an Emergent Executive Committee meeting to update about the report on efficient alternate sources of Revenue in lieu of Octroi/LBT and started a signature campaign for withdrawal of LBT & implementation of the said report.
The first citizens of the city Anil Sole Hon’ble Mayor kick started the signature campaign by signing first.
Mayor Anil Sole said that he has always been with the traders’ and in their agitation against LBT since it has shrinked the revenue of the NMC to a larger extent. He said that their collection from LBT has dropped to a remarkable level by Rs 150 crore which is a major blow to NMC. He added that the scene is almost the same in other municipal corporations where LBT has been introduced and where they too have skidded in mopping the desired revenue collection.
“State Government is only interested in bringing laws but is least bothered about the consequences,” he added. Anil Sole called upon traders that until and unless new alternatives are introduced, they should honestly pay LBT.
President of NVCC Dipen Agrawal assured on behalf of traders that they would genuinely pay the LBT till the ‘Alternatives to LBT report’ is not implemented. He said that the traders would treat tax as their contributions for the welfare of the people and for the development of the city. He suggested to representatives of various trade associations who congregated at the meeting to not to treat tax as a burden. However, he requested the Mayor that since he is in a position where his say holds some value, he should prevent unnecessary harassment to the traders and penal action against traders.
Dipen Agrawal said that as per the new alternatives mentioned in the report, the Octroi collection of State from the municipal corporations during 2011-2012 was Rs 12,315 crore of which Rs 370 crore was refunded. “State Government received Rs 11,945 crore from the Octroi after deducting the refund. According to the efficient alternate sources calculated in the report, the collection would easily touch an attractive figure of Rs 13,422 crore.
After deducting the refund of Rs 704 crore, the amount accrues to Rs 12,718 crore which is far more than the Octroi collection of Rs 11,945 crore. “Comparatively, there is a total benefit of Rs 773 crore to the State Government’s kitty from the alternate sources which will definitely pave large room for the development,” Agrawal pointed out.
Dipen Agrawal recalled that Chief Minister Pritviraj Chauhan had assured the delegation of FAM that a Committee would be formed comprising 5 top officials from State Government and five representations from trade associations. However, no such Committee had been formed for LBT as yet.
When Chandrashekar Prabhu met the Chief Minister that he would draft a report wherein alternatives for LBT would be innovated as per the suggestions of the FAM. Chief Minister had promised that he would write the foreword of the report. However, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan failed to steal few minutes from his schedule and write the foreword of the report.
“It took two months to make the report after spending hours in discovering the alternatives to LBT,” he said. Dipen Agrawal said, that the copy of the report was presented to the commissioners of the corporations and State Government as a last resort. Commissioners also lauded the report on condition of anonymity. “We thought that the report would be made public as Government was taking pride in maintaining silence. The report was made public on Wednesday at Mumbai in the presence of traders and representatives of the corporations,” he said.
Agrawal said, it was decided by the FAM to take the signatures of the traders affiliated to various associations and submit them to Chief Minister.
The last date for submitting the copy of signature in Vidarbha is November 25, 2013. We are confident that at least one lakh signatures of our traders and businessmen from Nagpur and Vidarbha would be signed during the campaign which is nothing but the woes of our trading community,” he added.
Through the campaign, traders wanted to alert State Government about the loopholes of LBT. “We strongly demand to withdraw LBT and implement the report,” Agrawal stated.
Those present on the occasion were Ramesh Mantri, Prafull Doshi, Suresh Bhojwani, Hemant Khungar, Jagdish V. Bang, past presidents, Ajaykumar Madan, Vice President, Hemant Gandhi, Secretary, Raju Vyas, Treasurer, Manubhai Soni, Ashok Sanghvi, Joint Secretaries, Chunibhai Shah, Arjundas Ahuja, Gajanand B. Gupta, Govind Mantri, Manoj Laturiya, Rajesh Kumar Ohri, Ramavatar Totla, Ramdas Vajani, Satish G. Bang, Sanjayraj Modh Saraf, Santosh Kabra, Suryakant
