Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government today approved the GST (Goods and Services Tax) Bill after the cabinet gave its nod for implementation in state across all goods except six.

Among the 6 goods which have been kept out of the ambit of the State GST, 5 are petroleum products and the sixth one is alcohol.

The five petroleum products on which the State GST will be exempted include Petrol, Diesel, Crude Oil, Aviation Fuel and Natural Gas.

"The GST can be implemented now after which there will be only 3 taxes instead of 17 taxes of the State and Centre. The three taxes are the Central GST, State GST and Integrated GST," said Finance department secretary, Tuhinkant Pandey.

The cabinet meeting which was the first one after the ministry reshuffle also cleared 10 other proposals. The cabinet has decided to waive off VAT on ’Moong Dal’ keeping in mind the interest of the farmers. Moreover, as per Cabinet decision, Markfed will procure ’Moong Dal’ at a price of Rs 52.25/ Kg. The State government will bear a loss of Rs 2 crore annually in this regard.

"We have decided to exempt VAT for ’Moong Dal’ farmers. Despite a loss of Rs 2 crore annually, to protect the interests of the farmers we have taken this decision," said Finance minister, Sashibhushan Behera.

Similarly, the proposal to revise the recruitment and promotion of Village Agricultural Worker (VAW) also got the cabinet nod. Plus-II has now been made the minimum qualification for recruitment of VAW.

Power tariff for captive power plants has been increased to 55 paise from 30 paise per unit which will bring in Rs 875 cr additional revenue to the government’s kitty.

Among others, the cabinet cleared the probe commission’s report on Kalinganagar firing and proposal to waive off stamp duty on 11 railway projects.

 12 May 2017, 01:19 PM