It is creating awareness among traders; needs to match octroi collection to execute development projects.
With the Local Body Tax (LBT) about to replace octroi, which is the major revenue source for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), the civic body is now collecting data about potential LBT payers. It has started creating awareness among traders about the tax.
As the state government is firm on bringing in a new tax system from the next fiscal, the PMC will have to face a huge task of bringing more and more appropriate tax payers in the ambit of LBT. It will have to match the current collection target of octroi in order to execute various development projects.
LBT will be charged on annual turnover of all purchases by traders and service providers during a year. The introduction of LBT will bring more sectors under the tax ambit.
In construction sector, LBT for construction of a building up to four floors without a lift will be Rs100 per sq metre. For construction of a building with lift and having 5 to 7 floors, it will be Rs150 per sq metre.
Though the state government is yet to give its final nod to the civic body about replacing octroi, the PMC has already started tapping various sources of prospective local body tax payers through the data available and used by the various government bodies for collecting value added tax (VAT), income tax, service tax, excise department and octroi.
Speaking to DNA, additional municipal commissioner Rajendra Jagtap, said, “We are holding meetings with various merchant chambers and traders’ organisation to create awareness about LBT among them in order to operate LBT system smoothly.”
“After getting a nod from the state government, the PMC will have to implement the new tax system but before that, we are preparing the ground. The work of software development for tax collection and data collection is going on a war footing,” Jagtap said.
The link put up on the official website of the PMC for making traders and merchants aware about LBT has been visited by over 18,700 concerned tax payers in the last few days.
“At present, we are working on meeting trading organisations, making aware them about LBT and clearing their doubts about the new tax system,” Vilas Kanade, PMC octroi chief said.
For the present fiscal year, the PMC has set a target of Rs1,420 crore as octroi duty collection. For coming financial year, it is Rs1,407 crore but since a new tax system is going to be implemented, the civic body is not sure about how much revenue it will collect from LBT.
Kanade said the civic budget has been prepared on the basis of octroi. “We are ready if the government orders us to implement LBT. However, it will be very difficult to indicate how much revenue will be collected from LBT,’’ he added.
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