Bows to traders’ protest; not to charge 1% value-added tax on textile items
The new Uttarakhand government on Thursday decided to exempt farmers from paying stamp duty on agriculture loans up to Rs 5 lakh.
A Cabinet meeting also decided not to charge 1 per cent value-added tax (VAT) on textiles items, in view of opposition by a section of traders. This will put a burden of Rs 50 crore on the state exchequer, additional chief secretary Alok Kumar Jain said after the meeting that was presided over by chief minister Vijay Bahuguna at the secretariat here.
For the benefit of civil and electric contractors, the government has extended a compounding scheme for three more years till 2015, where they have the option of not paying 13.5 per cent VAT.
Similarly, the government has brought a similar compounding scheme under VAT for restaurants, where those having an annual turnover up to Rs 50 lakh on cooked food would have the option of not paying 13.5 per cent VAT. Instead, these restaurant owners can take the compounding scheme of four per cent VAT till 2015. This will only be valid for all those restaurants which have the seating capacity not more than 40 and are non-air-conditioned.
In a separate decision, the cabinet accepted the recommendations of a government committee, headed by former chief secretary Indu Kumar Pande, which went into the issue of the SC/ST government posts. The panel had recommended maintain a status quo on the issue. In yet another decision, the government decided to wind up the Garhwal Schedule Tribe Nigam. The subsidiary of the GMVN Ltd had been lying close for several years. The government had also paid Rs 308 lakh to the GMVN for providing a voluntary retirement scheme and other benefits to retrench the remaining staff.
