State exempts gur, sugar from VAT

Chandigarh, May 3 : The Haryana Cabinet today decided to exempt or reduce the rate of Value Added Tax (VAT) on certain goods including gur, sugar jaggery and crudely tanned leather.

The cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here, also decided to reduce tax from 12.5 per cent to 4 per acent on Kattha, toys (excluding electronic toys), paper and plastic cup, buttons, honey, bricks made principaly of fly ash with fly ash content of more than 50 per cent and non-agricultural pump sets.

The proposed exemption and reduction of taxes would give a relief of about Rs 5 crore in a year to trade, industry and consumers.

The Cabinet also decided to make minor modifications in Schedule B of the Act. It had decided that heading B in entry 1 presently reading 'Bullock Drawn Agricultural Implements' would be modified to 'Animal Drawn Agricultural Implements.' The item C 11 (i) in entry 1 would be changed from 'Tractor Drawn Agricultural Implements' to 'Animal Driven Vehicle Rims.' It has also been decided to modify entry 30 reading 'Human Blood and Blood Plasma' to 'Human Blood including blood components like platelets, red blood corpuscles (RBC), plasma, anti haemophilic factors, albumin and gamma globulin.

Meanwhile, the state cabinet decided to extend the benefit of VAT exemptions on the sale of goods by Canteen Store Departments (CSD) to parents of deceased, unmarried military personnel and widows of servicemen.

The decison will benefit about 53,000 persons in Haryana and the state would have to bear a loss of Rs four crore anually as a consequence.

UNI