Mumbai : The state Congress president, Ashok Chavan, has appealed to the government to rethink its decision of imposing value-added tax (VAT) all across the state in place of local body tax (LBT).
“There are news reports that the state government has decided to impose VAT, in place of LBT from August 1, to compensate for the losses so incurred by the municipal corporations. Why should rural Maharashtra bear this burden? The government should come clean on the issue,” Chavan said while addressing a press conference here on Wednesday.
“The government should do a rethink on this proposal of taxing rural people for the development of cities,” Chavan said.
Presenting its maiden budget in March, the Devendra Fadnavis government had announced the scrapping of LBT from August 1, while proposing the imposition of surcharge on VAT across the state to compensate the loss in revenue due to LBT being done away with.
Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar had on Tuesday termed the VAT surcharge as a feasible option to LBT and said the government was considering other alternatives as well.
