Friday, July 26, 2013: Providing a major relief to local trader community of Mumbai, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday announced that the current DF government won’t bring the Local Body Tax (LBT) in Mumbai from October 1.
It was earlier announced by the government that 1 October will be the deadline for implementing the new tax system in Mumbai. To discuss this, the leaders of the opposition in the state legislative council, Vinod Tawde together with other legislators in the city held a meeting with Chavan in Vidhan Bhavan on Monday.
Post the meeting, Tawde was quoted in a TOI report as saying, “The CM has assured legislators that the ruling DF government has no intention of bringing an ordinance to introduce LBT in Mumbai. He even assured the delegation that any decision on the new tax system will be taken only after a thorough discussion on the subject in both Houses of the state legislature.”
Earlier in May, Chavan was in a closed-door meeting together with the protesting traders’ association assuring them that the tax will not be implemented. The association was protesting against LBT stating that they are not against the tax system though they want modifications in the procedure. The association was demanding that not the BMC but the sales tax officials should be assigned with the tasks of the assessment and tax collection. The LBT was introduced in April in several municipal corporations of the state including Nagput, Nashik and Pune.
