Odisha Welcomes Zero Tax Rate On Common Food Items

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Friday welcomed zero tax rate on common food items and reduction in tax rate from 6 percent to 5 percent by the GST Council.

“In the interest of common man, the State Government has always been pursuing no tax or lowest possible tax policy on daily consumable goods. The State Government, therefore, welcomes zero tax rate on common food items and reduction in tax rate from 6 percent to 5 percent by the GST Council,” said the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) in a release.

Notably, the GST council is holding its meeting on finalization of tax slabs ahead of the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) from April 2017.

The Odisha government also welcomed the decision of the GST Council to recommend compensation by Central Government to the States on the implementation of GST with 14 percent growth on the collection of a tax for the base year 2015-16.

“However, Odisha Government has always been of the view that the introduction of Cess will distort the GST structure. Therefore, the decision to continue Clean Environment Cess on coal etc. for compensation to all the States has been opposed by us,” said the release.

It said that the State Government would continue to pursue the Central Government for enhancing royalty on coal and sharing most of the Cess collected on coal among the coal-bearing States instead of the same being shared for compensating all the States for the introduction of GST.