No pressure from e-commerce firms over tax dispute: Karnataka CM

Refuting allegations that a top commercial tax official was sent on leave for serving notice to retail giant Amazon over a tax dispute, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today said his government was not under pressure from the company or any other e-commerce firm to resolve the issue.

Dismissing as baseless JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy's charge that Commercial Tax Commissioner Ajay Seth was deliberately sent on leave, Siddaramaiah said in the state assembly that the officer had sought leave for personal reasons.

"There is no truth in Kumaraswamy's allegations. Ajay Seth, who had served notice to Amazon on tax dispute, is a good officer. The government did not deliberately sent him on leave, instead he himself had sought leave for his daughter's sake who is preparing for an examination," he said.

Replying to the allegations by Kumaraswamy during the debate on budget, Siddaramaiah said e-commerce firm Flipkart had paid Rs 226 crore as tax and there was no question of them pressurising the government to resolve tax dispute, which related to payment of value added tax for e-commerce transactions.

"The state government is not under pressure from e-commerce companies to resolve tax dispute especially with the online retail giant Amazon, Flipkart, Alibaba and others," he said replying to the debate.

Kumaraswamy had alleged that unlike vendors, e-commerce companies do not pay tax as they claim to be mere facilitators.

E-commerce companies are active in the State through registered vendors and the vendors pay tax of 14.5-15.5 per cent, but not e-commerce companies as they claim to be mere facilitators, Kumaraswamy had said.