The Indian Express                       02.04.2013

On PMC terrain, several goods exempted from LBT

AS the tax system replacing octroi comes into force, the new rates of LBT in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) indicated reduction in prices of a few goods as the state government has kept LBT rates on certain goods less than the octroi rates.

LBT rate on domestic gas has been kept at zero. In the list released by the PMC, goods exempted from LBT include dairies, catalogues, bread, broomsticks, chalk stick, charcoal, firewood, garlic, tricycles, kumkum, raw meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, green coconut, incense sticks and camphor.

"There are many goods on which the PMC was charging octroi but they have been exempted in LBT," said Vilas Kanade, Joint Municipal Commissioner (LBT).

He said the civic administration had expedited the implementation of LBT and issued around 61,000 LBT registration certificates through an online service on Monday. "All VAT registered traders have been automatically registered for LBT. Thus, their certificates were made available online," Kanade said.

Civic staff was being trained for implementation of LBT, he said. "The PMC will begin a survey of the city from Wednesday. Records of traders — name, address and so on will be collected by LBT inspectors for each area. The work will be coordinated by regional inspector."

Once the data of all businesses and traders was available, it would be easy for the civic administration to identify shops and businesses not registered under LBT, he added.

As per the government decision, Kanade said, any business without LBT registration would be considered illegal.

"Traders registered under LBT will have to file their challan from next month and submit their returns after six months. Thus, revenue would come from next month," he said.

Meanwhile, the PMC released information on octroi collection for 2012-13. Of the target of Rs 1,450 crore, the civic administration collected Rs 1,314 crore in the fiscal ended March 31, 2013.