Will issue notice to Fastway, says GST commissioner

LUDHIANA: A day after local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said he would bring an ordinance in the upcoming cabinet meeting for an audit of tax collected from cable operators in the state during the last regime, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) commissionerate has decided to issue a showcause notice to Fastway Transmission Pvt Ltd in an alleged case of tax evasion running into crores.

People engaged in job work sector, which includes embroidery work, operations from their houses. This sector should be exempted as there is not going to be a huge collection from it. MANPREET BADAL, finance minister

CHANDIGARH: Punjab will seek exemption for unorganised job work sector from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and pitch for removing anomalies in the tax rates during the upcoming meeting of the GST Council on August 5, finance minister Manpreet Badal said on Thursday.

Manpreet, who will attend the meeting, said he will also raise the sensitive issue of GST on “langar” (community kitchen) in the Golden Temple.

Manpreet has been meeting representatives of several industry verticals, including sports goods and textile, to know about their grievances regarding GST.

“Textile industry is seeking complete GST exemption for job work sector. Besides, other industries such as bicycle have also sought similar exemption for job work,” Manpreet said.

“People engaged in job work sector, which does embroidery work, buttoning etc, run operations from their houses. This sector should be exempted as there is not going to be huge collection of tax from it,” he said.

He pointed out anomalies in tax rates existing in several verticals like sewing machines, tractor industries, garment and sports goods industries.

The minister said he will also take up the issue of GST on ‘langar’. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had pointed out that GST would cause adverse effect on buying of food items for ‘langar’ purposes.

The Golden Temple faces an extra financial burden of ₹10 crore a year with the implementation of the GST.

On the issue of seeking permission for more borrowing from the Centre to implement debt waiver, Manpreet said the central government should accept the request of the state for a one-time exemption from the provisions of the FRBM Act, 2003, that restrict its borrowings to a maximum of 3% of the GSDP.

He said the Centre should give one-time exemption to the state as it had done while converting settlement of ₹31,000 crore cashcredit limit issue to debt.

On giving smartphones as promised in poll manifesto, Manpreet said the government may start distributing mobile handsets from Diwali.

“It may be Diwali. We will conduct competitive bidding for it and those companies who give phones of best terms will be selected,” he said.