GST ambiguity ties up firms' money in northeastern states

Lack of clarity on earlier area-based exemption in hill & NE states also blocks financial calculations; refund mechanism and amount yet to be notified by Centre

With the new goods and services tax (GST), industries in hilly and northeastern states say they face uncertainty on whether they will continue to get full tax benefit for establishing units there.

Their overall benefits might get cut by up to 42 per cent. Apart from the investment and financial uncertainty on this, their working capital is being blocked, they contend.

Hindustan Unilever, Dabur, Marico, Emami and Berger Paints are among the bigger names with manufacturing facilities in these states. Companies argue that hundreds of crores worth of refunds have been blocked, with no notification yet from the government. Expectedly,