Goods tax levied on passenger carriers
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, January 23, 2011:
In an exceptional case, the State Taxation Dept has begun to collect goods tax from passenger carriers after a gap of about five years.
While to a commoner, passenger carriers would mean transportation of passengers but to the Taxation Department authorities carrying of goods in buses is legal, only if the vehicle operator or owner is willing to pay tax.
According to a Department source, non-levying of taxes in the past five years had cost the State exchequer to the tune of Rs 50-60 lakhs per annum.
It is informed that from December last, personnel manning the Taxation Check Post at Hengbung in senapati district have started to estimate the worth of goods brought in passenger buses into Manipur from outside the State and levy tax against those articles for which valid documents could not be produced.
The source also disclosed that amount of tax to be levied on the goods is determined in accordance with the schedule of Manipur Value Added Tax Act 2004.For goods falling within Item No.4 to 164 the taxable amount is five percent of the goods compared to four percent rate in the recent past.
The rate has also been increased from 12.5 percent to 13.5 for goods under item No 166, maintained the source adding that the new rate has come into effect from December 17, 2010 and the same is applicable to both goods carriers and passenger buses.
Informing that goods tax amounting to Rs 5,52,920 could be collected from inter-State passenger buses, the source said that the annual tax collection has recorded a sharp rise in the past few months.
In between January to December, 2010 the tax collection amount under both VAT and central Sales Tax reached Rs 65,12,15,386, while it was Rs 61,91,63,707 in the previous year.
The source further claimed that shifting of Taxation Check Post at Hengbung has addressed to a large extent inconveniences faced by Department personnel while trying to collect tax from passenger carriers at the North AOC parking as transport operators turn hostile.