Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, August 4: The state government Thursday expressed satisfaction on the passing of the much-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in the Rajya Sabha and said it would lead to a uniform tax rate throughout the country and help in seamless movement of goods and services across states.
“It is a great thing that the Constitution Amendment Bill for GST has been passed in the Rajya Sabha Wednesday. GST is an important milestone in the reforms of indirect taxes in India and the state government is in favour of GST,” finance minister Pradeep Amat said here.
The implementation of GST would provide relief to industry, trade and agriculture as value added tax (VAT), CST, entry tax and entertainment tax will subsumed in GST, he said.
“As GST is likely to be implemented from the 2017-18 financial year, we are demanding CST compensation up to the 2016-17 financial year,” Amat said.
The state government had claimed `2,755.36 crore towards CST compensation because of loss on account of CST reduction from 2007-08 to 2011-12 and has received `2,201.40 crore for this period, according to sources.
For the period 2012-13 to 2014-15, the state government has claimed compensation of `2,908.82 crore. However, the Centre has released only 240.53 crore for the year 2012-13.
Now, as the Centre has decided to implement GST from 2017-18, the state is demanding compensation till 2016-17 too, they said.
“Our government has raised the issue of levying additional non rebatable green tax on minerals and other polluting goods sold in course of interstate trade and commerce to compensate for the adverse effects of pollution,” the finance minister said.
The state government has also demanded that states be allowed to levy of tax on tobacco products over and above GST, he said.
