No proposal to exempt MPLAD funds from GST: Govt to Parliamentary panel

MoSPI tells House panel no GST exemption is planned for MPLADS use, even as the panel seeks relief to improve fund utility and suggests increasing annual allocation

There is no proposal under review to waive GST from the utilisation of the Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme funds, the government has told a Parliamentary panel that had in March recommended scrapping the indirect tax to improve the efficacy of the scheme.

 

A GST of up to 18 per cent is levied on the work done under the MPLAD scheme.

 

“As far as the burden of GST on MPLADS funds is concerned, utilisation of funds for receiving supply of goods and services under the scheme is taxable as per the applicable GST rates. The GST rates and exemptions are prescribed based on the recommendations of the GST Council, which is a statutory body. At present there is no proposal under consideration for granting any exemption of GST on utilisation of MPLAD Fund,” the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) has told the Standing Committee on Finance.

 

The panel had recommended the ministry to prepare a proposal to take up the matter with the Union Finance Ministry for waiving off GST from MPLADS to enhance the effectiveness of the scheme.

 

“The Committee observes that this scheme of noble cause is heavily burdened under the GST and the current amount of funds that have been earmarked for this scheme seem to be insufficient to fulfil the desired objective. The Committee recommended the ministry to prepare a proposal to take up the matter with the finance ministry for waiving off GST from MPLADS to enhance the effectiveness of the scheme,” the house panel had noted. 

 

Besides, the house panel also asked whether there was a proposal to hike the yearly allocation under the scheme from ₹5 crore per member, as the current amount seemed insufficient due to “inflation” and fulfil the desired objective of creating “durable community assets of national priorities in the interest of common public.”

 

To this, the ministry replied that at present, the approval for the scheme is till 2025-26 and it would take action for extension of the scheme beyond 31 March 2026, following due process of third-party evaluation, consultation with stakeholders and keeping in view the requests received.

 

Meanwhile, in response to the panel’s expectation of the ministry remaining committed to introducing further reforms in the National Statistical System (NSS) to boost its efficacy and make the estimates more robust, the ministry replied that the NSS has consistently adapted itself to the growing data requirements of the nation mainly through embedding modern technological advancements.

 

“Through its mathematically valid scientific survey designs, 100 per cent digital data collection, robust online scrutiny and data cleaning, NSS is now capable of conducting a number of surveys simultaneously across the nation and publishing the results with zero delay,” it said.