Agra's petha units to get tax relief

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to give tax relief to the petha units of Agra, after almost a couple of years of discussion on the issue. A cabinet meeting will be convened soon by UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to exempt the Agra delicacy from trade tax.

Around 700 cottage units in Agra make pethas and the turnover from these units comes out to over Rs 600 crore, which is a significant source of revenue for the state government.

Petha units have resented this tax, terming it "unjust", and its removal has been a long-standing demand. It was justified on the grounds that they were cottage units eligible for tax exemption.

Talking to Business Standard, Ravi Prakash Agarwal, Vice-President, All India Udyog Vyapar Pratinidhi Mandal said that a delegation of the "Vyapar Mandal" and the Petha Association of Agra had met the UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and presented the case of the tax on "Petha" before the chief minister.

The news of imminent tax relief on Petha production has come as a respite to the Petha industry of the town which was facing considerable drop in sales as well as production over the past few years due to the low availability of raw Petha fruit in the vicinity of Agra and the environmental concerns associated with the tremendous amounts of bio-waste generated in Petha production every day.

According to Subhash Goyal, the owner of Pancchi Petha, one of the largest Petha brands of Agra, the imposition of 5 percent trade tax on the sales of Petha had caused considerable damage to the Petha industry of the town which was already finding it hard to survive. He said that till date, the government treated Petha as a "sweet preparation" and taxed it accordingly, when it was not even listed in the trade tax manual of the state, but the delegation that met the UP Chief Minister made it amply clear that Petha was not a "sweet", but an agricultural production of Agra manufactured entirely through cottage units and it was liable to receive exemption from trade tax.

Accordingly, he said Yadav had assured that Agra's petha would be the first indigenous product of Agra that is rendered "Tax-Free" in the next cabinet meeting.