NASHIK: Senior officials from the state government’s sales tax
department will train employees of Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC)
for implementing the local body tax (LBT). The training programme is
likely to be conducted next week. The civic administration is already in
talks with the sales tax department to decide the schedule for the
training programme.

The preparations by the NMC to introduce
the LBT have gathered momentum following Bombay high court’s order of
March 26 to implement it within eight weeks. The deadline ends on May 20
and the LBT is expected come into effect from May 21.

Speaking
to TOI, a senior NMC official said, “We talked to senior officials of
the sales tax department, who will impart training pertaining to LBT in
municipal corporations across the state. The dates for the proposed
training programme will be fixed in the next two days. During the
programme, we are also planning to organize a special session for the
industry and trade people with an aim to clear their doubts regarding
LBT norms.”

“At present, we are focusing on octroi collection,
which will continue till May 20. We will start actual work two weeks
before the date of implementation of LBT. We have already collected all
the necessary information from the sales tax, excise and MIDC
departments. There are around 20,000 businesses in the city and they
will be enrolled for LBT shortly,” the official added.

In June
2012, the state government had issued a notification to introduce LBT in
Nashik with effect from July 1, 2013. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
corporator, Gulzar Kokani, and Shiv Sena’s Sudhakar Badgujar, leader of
the opposition in the house, had then challenged the decision of the
state government to introduce LBT in Nashik. On June 29, the high court
had stayed the decision of the state government to introduce LBT.
However, this year on March 26, the high court rejected the plea by
Kokani and Badgujar and directed the civic body to implement the LBT
within eight weeks.