Cong slams govt for drastic decline in professional tax collection

The opposition party, Congress, has slammed Maharashtra government on Friday on it’s failure to address the issue of rising unemployment. Citing the government figures which show a sharp decline in the collection of professional tax this year, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee General Secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that this decline directly indicates high unemployment prevailing in the organised sector.

“Higher the tax collection, more are the number of permanent employees. During the tenure of Fadnavis government, professional tax collection has been on a free fall each year,” said Sawant.

This year, Maharashtra government missed the target by Rs 652 crores. The Devendra Fadnavis led government was expected to collect Rs 2769 crore but could only collect Rs 2117 crores. “Fadnavis government has been missing it's target for the last three consecutive years. While during the Congress rule, government would collect more tax than the target for 2013-14 and 2014-15. It is also unfortunate that the tax collection of Rs 2117 crores is much less than the expected collection of 2013-14 which was Rs 2146 crores,” said Sawant.

Sawant further said that this reduction in professional tax collection indicates poor performance of Fadnavis government as well as the ill-effects of demonetisation on economy. “It was clear that demonetisation destroyed entire unorganised sector but even the organised sector has faced serious problems,” said Sawant.

Congress criticised the state government by saying that Chief Minister is selling dreams by organising events like make in Maharashtra, magnetic Maharashtra and exaggerating figures of Memorandum of understandings with companies worth Rs 8 lakh - Rs 16 lakh crores assuring employment for lakhs of people. But reality is exactly opposite and much more grave. "Like in many other sectors under BJP government Maharashtra is lagging behind in industrial sector as well," Sawant said.

Citing the state govt figures which show a sharp decline in the collection of professional tax this year, Maharashtra Congress GS Sachin Sawant has said that this decline directly indicates high unemployment prevailing in the organised sector.