'Civic bodies to have option of deciding tax structure'

As a solution to the traders' stiff resistance to the Local Body Tax (LBT), Maharashtra government has decided to give the option of adopting tax structure of their choice to the municipal corporations.
The government is likely to make a formal announcement in this regard later this week, a senior minister said after the cabinet meeting.
With the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) firm on not scrapping of octroi, the government will leave the decision on continuing with LBT or re-starting octroi to the civic bodies outside Mumbai.
"It is up to the civic bodies to decide the tax structure and generate revenues. They will have the option. LBT was introduced on demand of the traders and now they had done a u-turn," he said.

With the tribal ministers like Madhukar Pichad and Padmakar Valvi opposing the proposal to include Dhangar community in the third schedule of the Constitution, ministers like Jeetendra Awhad and Amit Deshmukh raised the issue of inclusion of Wanjara and Lingayat communities in the third schedule so that they can avail benefits of reservation.
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said the issues would be examined.
The government had earlier asked concerned departments to prepare a proposal for recommending inclusion of these castes in the third schedule to the Centre.