The amendment will benefit 808,391 out of a total of 809,553 registered traders
By Sushma Rani
With effect from August 1, 2015, the Maharashtra government has exempted traders with a turnover of less than ₹500 million from paying Local Body Tax to any of the 25 municipal councils.
One of the pre-election promises of the existing government had been that it would abolish the LBT if it came into power and after forming the government in Maharastra, pressure from the trader community had been mounting. So, this exemption is in line with its poll promises.
According to reports, the government has made a budget provision of about ₹20 billion to compensate the municipal corporations. The exemption will benefit 808,391 traders out of a total of 809,553 registered traders. There are 25 civic bodies across the state and the LBT has been abolished in most of them. The government has also decided to provide financial aid to those corporations to make up for the losses they will incur due to the abolition of LBT.
As the government decided to give relief from LBT to the traders, the All India Radio & Electronics Association (AREA), West Zone, which protects the interests of those in the electronics trade and industry, appreciated the support and cooperation of its members during the anti-LBT agitation. The association believes that the unity of its members was, and continues to be, a major guiding force to traders from other municipal corporations. It believes that the same level of contributions from all the members would help in the betterment of the electronics fraternity and the trade, in general. It was due to a month-long bandh last year that the LBT was not enforced on Mumbai.
