JOIN USKumaraswamy questions VAT exemption for e-biz firms
The JD(S) on Wednesday said the State government’s stand not to bring e-commerce firms under the Value Added Tax (VAT) net had resulted in losses to the exchequer.
Participating in a discussion on the budget proposals in the Assembly, JD(S) floor leader H D Kumaraswamy wondered why the government had a soft corner for e-commerce firms like Amazon and Flipkart. “These firms are doing business without paying taxes. The then commercial taxes commissioner Ajay Seth tried to rein them in, but he was forced to go on leave. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also came under severe pressure from the party’s central leaders including Digvijaya Singh, P Chidambaram to keep e-commerce firms out of the VAT regime,” charged Kumaraswamy.
He said that VAT waiver was one of the reasons why the commercial taxes department had fallen behind in meeting its budgetary target of Rs 42,000 crore for the financial year 2014-15.
The JD(S) leader charged that there was rampant corruption in the commercial taxes department. There was tax evasion, trading was done by creating fictitious accounts and suppressed sales were going unchecked, he charged.
Market borrowings
He said poor resource mobilisation in State’s own taxes, including commercial taxes, excise, stamps and registration and motor vehicles taxes had resulted in the State depending heavily on market borrowings. The government had borrowed Rs 45,000 crore during the last two years, but asset creation had been nil.
Excise duties on liquor had been hiked but recovery was poor, he said. Kumaraswamy said Siddaramaiah, who had the experience of presenting 10 budgets, had let down the people.
Kumaraswamy sought that the government impose a higher electricity tax on large industries as an additional resources mobilisation measure.
He accused the government of letting down maize farmers by not giving them adequate minimum support price (MSP). The Union government might have refused to give MSP for maize, but nobody had stopped the government from helping the farmers using its own resources, he added.
The agriculture sector has been badly affected in the last two years. Though the government has borrowed close to Rs 45,000 crore in two years, it has not increased allocation to the ailing sector.
The government has neither spent money on the welfare of farmers nor has it created any asset, he said.
JD(S) member Shivalinge Gowda said Krishi Bhagya had not helped the farmers in any way. The scheme has benefited businessmen who undertake digging of pits, sell plastic sheets and sprinklers. This is because there is no water to fill up these pits, he added.