The Urban Development Department
(UDD) has organized a meeting in this regard on Saturday at Mantralaya.
Principal secretary-II Shrikant Singh has convened the meeting of all
municipal commissioners and is likely to announce the rates and traders’
registration policy. Municipal commissioner Shyam Wardhane will be
attending the meeting.

NMC
sources told TOI that the government issued the gazette notification
for LBT implementation on February 25. “The copy of the notification is
likely to be handed over to the civic chief during the meeting. The
information about the notification was mentioned in the letter received
by the NMC for the meeting,” the sources said.

Under the LBT
system, the vehicles will not be stopped at the entrance of the city as
was the practice in the octroi system. The NMC will collect the LBT on
the lines of Sales Tax on a monthly basis.

It will be a big challenge for the NMC to shift to LBT system within
the next 30 days. The registration of all traders will have to done
under the new system which is also likely to receive some opposition
from the traders and office bearers.

During the inauguration
programme of Anand Talkies railway under bridge earlier this week, chief
minister Prithviraj Chavan had said that abolition of octroi was one of
the conditions of JNNURM scheme under which the NMC obtained big
developmental projects.