In keeping with the ‘Ma Mati Manush’ spirit, West Bengal Finance Minister, Amit Mitra, on Monday tabled a Finance Bill that sought to raise taxes on liquor and tobacco related products while keeping other items untouched.
Tobacco related products like cigarettes, chewing tobacco and cigar have been brought under Schedule D, which is higher than the earlier 13.5 per cent value added tax (VAT) slab, though bidi has been kept untouched. The rate in Schedule D, however, has not been specified.
Sales tax on liquor sold at MRP has been increased from 23 to 27 per cent and without MRP from 37 to 50 per cent.
All items under zero and four per cent have been kept untouched. "We have not touched the zero category. Industrial inputs in the four per cent category have not been touched," the Finance Minister said. Asked why luxury items were spared, Mitra said, inflation was affecting everyone.
Mitra is relying heavily on ‘incentivizing compliance through integrity’ for mopping up the targeted Rs 6000 crore increase in revenues.
“The approach is trust. Honest businessmen will be rewarded, they will be deemed to be assessed while the dishonest will face the financial hammer,” Mitra said at a press conference, after the Bill was passed.
The Bill, Mitra said, was done in consultation with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was concerned about inflation. “The idea is to enlarge the tax base and not to burden people already reeling under inflation. This is the Ma Mati Manush model,” he said.
A number of measures for tax simplification have been made. “A number of Acts have been amended to ensure efficiency and delivery,” Mitra said.
The stamp duty in family settlement cases—like transfer of lease within family members, transfer of share in family partition—have been brought down to two per cent from seven per cent.
“It used to be always treated as sale and hence the duty was so high. We have brought it down,” Mitra explained. In the case of gifts, however, it has been increased to two per cent from 0.5 per cent to keep it at a uniform level.
