New legislation for levy & collection of tax on supply of GST

Odisha government today approved a proposal to enact new legislation for levy and collection of tax on supply of Goods and Service (GST) in the state besides giving nod for amendment of the Odisha Value Added Tax Act, 2004.

The State Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today approved 11 different proposals which included exemption of VAT on procurement of Green Gram (moong) under Price Support Scheme (PSS) Operation.

The state government will incur Rs 2 crore on VAT waiver on green gram, said Finance minister S B Behera. He said barring only six items (five of them petroleum products and alcohol), all others would come under the GST regime.

This apart, the Cabinet also approved a proposal for enhancement of electricity duty (ED) rate for any person not being a licensee who generates energy for his own use or consumption and a licensee in its own premises.

The Cabinet agreed to the proposal of raising the ED from 30 paise per unit of electricity generated by the captive power plants to 55 paise per unit. "The revision will help the government to generate additional revenue to the tune of Rs 875 crore per annum. This amount will fund electrical infrastructure development schemes being implemented in the state," said chief secretary A P Padhi.

Presently, the state government collects Rs 1100 crore as ED from 73 CPPs at the rate of 30 paise as ED per unit. The CPPs altogether produce about 20,000 million units per annum.

"This increase in the ED for the CPP will in no way affect common consumers," Padhi said adding that the cabinet also approved a proposal to remit stamp duty and registration fees for execution of lease deeds of government lands with respect of 11 ongoing railway projects.

Besides, Odisha Cabinet even revised the minimum qualification for appointment of Village level Workers (VAW) from Matric to Plus II.