The Times of India            17.12.2013

Pay local body tax: THAM to its members

THANE: The Thane Vyaparudyog Mahasangh (THAM), a flagship of over 40 traders' wings, have appealed to its 40,000 members to pay Local Body Tax (LBT) at the earliest to avoid interest, penalty and administrative action. They have also urged civic officials to conduct more raids to catch hold of defaulters. on the defaulters as the regular tax payers are forced to shell out the difference amount of LBT due to shortfall in civic treasury which runs dry due to a paltry collection., much less than the expected figure.

It's the fallout of Earlier, civic chief Aseem Gupta was apprehensive about rounding up 's strong apprehension about rounding up the non-payers and had asked the regular payers to clear the difference amount at 2% flat rate, in accordance with the government rate structure.which varies from product to product., due to merger revenue inflow into civic treasury since a major chunk on traders preferring tax evasion as they used to practice during the octroi regime. However, a huge deficit, after almost nine months of LBT imposition, has forced him to take a stern call. Till date, TMC has managed Rs 305 crore from LBT, stamp duty and escort fees.

Rs 215 crore LBT has been collected as against the projected annual figure of over 500 crores. "We have been paying LBT @ 2% based on a mutual understanding with the civic commissioner as we had assured him to fill the coffer with this low rate while anticipating a cent percent turnout. But, Only 30% traders are paying now and evaders are more, leading to dismal collection.

If everybody comes under the tax net, the collection will surpass Rs 900 croreOnly 30% traders are paying regularly whereas rest is scot free," said Pauly Jimmy, a THAM member. According to LBT officials, out of 29,000 registered houses, only 12,000 traders make payments.

"Members are requested to register under LBT and pay accordingly so that the traders can ask the civic chief for a uniform rate with the advent of next fiscal," said THAM secretary Bhavesh Maru.

Sandeep Parekh, vice president of Thane Small Scale Industries Association, which is forms a major part in Tham, said, "We have urged the TMC to increase its manpower in the LBT section so that it can conduct regular raids on the defaultersand non-registered traders."

Dilip Dhole, TMC deputy commissioner and LBT head, said, "More than 8,000 traders are yet to be registered. A few thousands are not eligible for LBT as they purchase goods inside Thane city." A section among the 17, 000 traders come under non-payer and low payer. We will track the non-registered traders during the ensuing raids.