Maha Congress MPs seek Sonia's intervention on LBT

Congress MPs from Maharashtra today sought the intervention of party President Sonia Gandhi to find solution to the ongoing strike by traders over LBT.
The business community has launched an agitation from April 22 against the levy of Local Body Tax (LBT) in place of octroi.
While octroi was payable by transporters on behalf of traders bringing their goods in city limits, the newly introduced LBT is payable by traders themselves and for which they are required to furnish all details of their businesses. Traders apprehend the new system would lead to corruption and harassment at the hands of local civic staff.

The MPs pointed out to Sonia Gandhi in a communication that in most states, octroi was abolished following introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) in 2005 without any alternate levy of tax, a press release from office of Vilas Muttemwar said.
The introduction of VAT led to increase in the revenues of the states which helped them compensate the loss suffered by municipal corporations following withdrawal of octroi, they pointed out.
The MPs have also demanded that the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan should enter into a dialogue with the representatives of business community to find a workable solution to the problem.

Vilas Muttemwar, Murli Deora, Gurudas Kamat, Vijay Darda, Eknath Gaikwad, Mukul Wasnik were among the MPs to have approached party president Sonia Gandhi seeking her intervention in the matter, according to the release.