Skip to main content

Arrive at a consensus on GST fast: Mamata tells Amit Mitra

In what could be the best push for the longpending goods and services tax ( GST), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asked state finance minister and chairman of the empowered committee on GST, Amit Mitra, to arrive at a consensus on the issue soon.
“So far, no one has been able to do it. Now, Amit Mitra is leading it. A lot has been said; now, it’s time for action,” Mamata said. “ We want a one- tax formula for the industry. We have had it in our manifesto since 2009. We are in the Opposition, but we are still fighting for GST.” However, she also chose to take on the Centre for creating an ‘ environment of mistrust’, so that her party’s support for GST would not be construed as support for the Modi government.
Mamata also criticised the Centre’s smart city concept, though New Town Rajarhat on the northeastern fringes of Kolkata has been included in the latest list of smart cities announced by the Centre.
“This is a completely flawed concept. The money is for a building. We could have made better use of this money... Rajarhat is anyway ‘ oversmart’,” she said. Under the Smart Cities Mission, each selected city will get central assistance of ? 100 crore a year for five years. The West Bengal government has taken it upon itself to build six theme townships.
Mamata said her government would work towards preparing a vision document for five, 10 and 15 years. “ We will focus on automobile and manufacturing sectors.”
Business Standard New Delhi,08th June 2016

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Data storage norm splits digital payments industry

Data storage norm splits digital payments industry  India’s nascent digital payment industry could be thrown into disarray due to the demand by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that all user data be stored within the country, fears an industry grouping, which has termed the decision as “heavy-handed”, even as others, including the country’s largest digital payment provider Paytm, have hailed the move.  In a bid to narrow the growing schism, the industry is planning to send a formal representation to the regulator highlighting its concerns, a top official told ET.  “We are trying to build a consensus on the issue," said the person adding that the representation to the central bank will be ready this week.  RBI on April 6, mandated all payment companies—global and local—to set up data storage facilities within India by October. The stringent six-month deadline has attracted the ire of several sections of the industry that fear it will lead to a disruption of wel...

Sebi to finalise options in commodities today

The Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) will meet on Friday with senior officials of the latter, to give a final shape to the rules on options trading in commodity futures, beside revising the warehousing norms to ensure good delivery on settlement. The decision taken, after discussing with the advisory committee, will be placed before the regulator’s board, to finalise the regulations. According to knowledgeable sources, three commodities in each segment, agricultural and non- agricultural, have been proposed for introducing options. It appears commodities from the soya and guar segments are preferred in the former. From the non- agri segment, it is likely that gold, silver and crude oil will be finalised. All these These have better liquidity and both the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange and the Multi Commodity Exchange, respectively, will be able to introduce the options. In the equity segments, options ar...

E tailers global warehouses may come under tax net

E tailers  global warehouses may come under tax net Warehouses of e-commerce companies based in countries such as Australia, Japan, Italy,  Spain, the Netherlands, and Russia may not be exempted from paying the income tax in India  once the multilateral instrument (MLI) to prevent base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS)  comes into force. BEPS refers to the reporting framework mooted by the Organisation for Economic  Co-operation and Development (OECD) and signed by over 100 countries, including India, to  prevent exploiting gaps and mismatches in tax rules to shift profits by multinational  companies (MNCs) artificially to low-tax regimes. The representatives of 68 countries on June 7 this year signed an agreement (MLI) in Paris  to amend their tax treaties to bring them in alignment with measures to prevent BEPS.  However, there is still time for synchronising tax treaties with the multilateral  instrument. India has submitte...