Oil PSUs to hold dharna at Jantar Mantar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a steep target for the Central Board of Excise and Customs to achieve 3 crore registrations under goods and services tax, two senior finance ministry officials said.

"The prime minister has given a target of bringing 3 crore traders and manufacturers under the indirect tax system, including the small businesses so that they can be brought under the formal system of taxation," the official told Cogencis.

On Wednesday, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said 7.25 million indirect tax payers have migrated to the new tax regime and 2.1 million people, who were previously outside the tax framework, have also registered themselves.

Officials of Central Board of Excise and Customs and Central Board of Direct Taxes have also been asked to share information on their tax payers, for better compliance, the official said. The prime minister has urged the tax department to bring small businesses with less than 2-million-rupee annual turnover under the new indirect tax net, though it is not mandatory for them to get registered.

In his addresses to tax administrators at Rajasva Gyan Sangam last week, Modi had said that in order to enable traders to take benefit of the goods and services tax, they should work towards ensuring that all traders, including even relatively smaller ones with turnover below 2 mln rupees, should register on the GST Network.

"Bringing these small businesses under GST will help them in taking the benefit of input tax credit when they supply to large companies. It will also ensure that their income will become accessible to the direct tax department," the official said.

The official said a huge number of new registrations are coming from the textile sector, which was mostly outside the indirect tax regime. Last month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had also asked the tax department to explain the low number of registrations for the composition scheme under the goods and services tax. Indian healthcare system has not been one of the best systems. Adding to this fact was the statement by Suresh Vazirani, CMD of Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd which stated that each year, India loses over Rs 60 lakh crore in the sector.

Vazirani who was delivering a keynote address at 10th Medtech Conference of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), said “Our Prime Minister’s vision to provide affordable health care to all has a deep economic rationale too.” He further added, “Each year, India loses over Rs 60 lakh crore due to productivity loss caused by poor healthcare infrastructure. To make affordable healthcare to all, we must ‘Make in India’ our medical technology needs. Healthcare cannot be made affordable if 70 per cent of India’s medical equipment is imported. Hence, India needs to prioritize medical technology adoption based on the local disease prevalence and promote investments in the targeted areas.” Officers of Oil PSUs are protesting against the government over the massive cut in the recommendations of third Pay Revision Committee. On September 12, 2017, the office bearers of Officers Associations of oil industry majors and Maharatna CPSEs shall be holding a dharna at Jantar Mantar.

In the last ten years only 15 per cent fitment has been given to these professionals hailing from salaried middleclass, which is the lowest in the history of pay revision, stated Indian Oil Officer Association in its statement. The Indian Oil Officer Association, representing the largest commercial Oil PSU in the country, is leading the negotiation. Alok Kumar Roy, President of Indian Oil Officers Association said, “While the cafeteria allowance has been curtailed from 50 per cent to 35 per cent along with meagre fitment of only 15 per cent after one decade, and while considering the eco situation, we are still going with it but the other genuine demands need to be seriously reviewed and reconsidered. We have been waiting for pay revision for last so many years, while struggling with substantial pay erosion during high inflation era of last decade.

The association in the statement said that around 1.7 lakh executives of these PSUs generating a revenue of Rs 13.86 lakh crore, around 70 per cent of the revenue generated by all 242 PSUs of the country. So there is a need for the government to be sensitive about it. Roy added that the representatives are opting for a mode of protest that avoids public inconvenience as well as any economic loss to the country.