Thursday, September 12, 2013: Aurangabad Municipal Corporation faces accusation from corporators that it has not been able to bring the so called small and seasonal dealers under the local body tax (LBT) ambit. Since the civic body lacked mechanism to cross check the goods brought by the small dealers, therefore, these are getting an opportunity to evade LBT.
According to opposition leader in the AMC, Zafar Khan, many traders involved in seasonal business such as selling Rakshabandhan and Holi items apart from items for other festivals like Eid, Diwali and Christmas failed to fulfill their tax liabilities.
“Only a few are handling the department that has to take care of more than 21,000 registered dealers in the AMC limit. This has negatively impacted the revenue collection,” The Times of India quoted Corporator Gajanan Barwal as saying. “Proper monitoring of city’s trade could fetch an additional annual revenue of about Rs 200 million to 300 million,” he added.
On the other hand, LBT incharge, Ayub Khan pointed out that the civic body was garnering considerable amount through LBT from small dealer including retailers involved in seasonal businesses.
“It is true that we have shortage of manpower and it is quite impossible for us to monitor all trading activities in the city. Moreover, the LBT format is at its nascent stage and we may soon develop a full proof system and recover tax from all eligible dealers,” he explained when asked if the civic body has any mechanism to cross check seasonal traders, The Times of India reported.
