Punjab Assembly passes amendment in VAT

The Punjab Assembly passed three bills without any discussion except on one bill on which some members expressed their reservations though there was sufficient time before it.



Interestingly, as there was no discussion as even legislators of the principal opposition Congress too had little to speak on these bills, the house was adjourned over two hours before its scheduled time.



Of the three bills, two replaced the ordinance issued during the inter-session period and both effected amendment in the Punjab Value Added Tax(VAT).



One bill proposed to impose additional tax @ 10 per cent to garner a revenue of Rs 500 crore. After the abolition of octroi, ten per cent of the payable VAT was to be transferred to the local bodies and thus a sum of Rs 550 crore was assured for them as dedicated fund to meet their requirements. However, this move had eroded the VAT receipts to the state exchequer and the proposed bill will compensate the state exchequer.



The other amendment bill had no financial implications but was aimed to have procedural changes to ensure compliance and offered more than 60 days to the complainant.



The third bill based on the recommendations of the two member sub-committee for resource mobilisation and imposed entertainment duty on \"Direct to Home (DTH)\" services and was aimed to garner Rs 15 crore per annum.



Sukhpal Khaira of Congress pleaded to withdraw the bill as it amounted to taxing dissemination of information and curtailing freedom of expression.

Also, he attributed motive to the government that levy on DTH was to help the cable operators whose business is monopolised by pro-government operators.
News From: http://www.Time2timeNews.com