Ranchi: The state government has taken many steps to encourage business and in the interest of traders and has also initiated measures to create a favourable environment for trade and business in the state said Secretary of the Commercial Taxes department Prashant Kumar.
Addressing a press conference at the Suchana Bhawan here he said as far as business in Jharkhand is concerned the traders and trade body have also shown favourable support. He said that the department was giving special focus on tax compliance to the traders as part of which the process of registration, tax payment online and even rebate is been given on taxes for the traders.
He said that the tax collection has also increased in the state and during the financial year 2019-20 till July Rs 4740.57 crore tax has been collected which compared to the previous physical is up by 28.57 percent which included Rs 1472 crore non GST tax. He said that for present fiscal the department has set a target to collect Rs 16,700 crore as tax.
He said that the department is working to encourage trade and business in the state as part of which in the last 4.5 years many decisions have been taken as while on one hand 50 percent rebate in electricity bill has been announced for the Mega IT units and units producing energy through renewable energy similarly to encourage the installation of solar power plants the equipments used in it have been made tax free while tax rebates have been also announced for traders having an annual turnover of Rs 2 crore while GST registration has been scaled up to Rs 40 lakh.
Mr Kumar said that the department has reduced taxes on various items which is proven to be beneficial for the traders and the common people and pointed that GST on homes and flats has been reduced from 12 pc to 5 pc while that on school bags has been brought down to 18 pc insulin 5pc restaurant 5pc and the GST imposed on tickets in cinema hall above Rs 100 has been reduced from 28 to 18 pc and those tickets which are priced less than Rs hundred GST of 5 pc has been imposed while sanitary napkins have been made GST free.
He said that after the GST was implemented in the state 18 2696 traders have been registered while a toll free call centre for giving information related to GST 1800 345 7020 is also functioning in the state apart from that for the traders the taxpayers’ lawyers and for Chambers of Commerce training program is also organised and a screening committee has been also formed to check red-tapism.
The secretary said that after the implementation of the GST in the state some firms were found to be guilty of fake transactions and tax theft and to keep an eye on fake transaction special monitoring is being done and so far 43 instances have come for fake transaction in which 25 cases FIR has been registered while in others probe is on.