Tax cut on iron, steel likely Minister

Hyderabad, Jun 8 (UNI) With Andhra Pradesh entering stabilisation phase of the Value-Added Tax (VAT), the Government is actively considering tax reduction on iron, steel and other hardware items from 12.5 per cent to four per cent in the line of other relaxed 250 Industrial raw materials.

Talking to reporters here, Commercial Taxes Minister K Ramakrishna said the state with 44.99 per cent registered growth (Rs 651.89 crore) in the first two months of this fiscal, would net a revenue of Rs 15,465 crore, as against Rs 12,460 crore in the last.

Petroleum products and liquor had a 45 to 50 per cent share in the tax collection, he said.

Terming fuel price hike as "unfortunate" , he said though tax on petrol and diesel sales was likely to go up by Rs 90 to Rs 100 crore this year, the state would lose Rs 150 to Rs 160 crore on account of reduction in the rate on LPG Justifying the imposition of tax on salt, he said this was mainly targetted at high-end users of branded salts and not on locally manufactured salt. The Government would decide on reducing the tax rate on tea and coffee after studying the financial implications, he added.

Informing that the Centre had granted Rs 404 crore as compensation for revenue loss after the implementation of VAT last year, he urged the Centre to phase out the Central Sales tax (CST) in to two instead four phases.

The Minister urged the deputy commissioners to actualise the E-filing of returns in this fiscal and to achieve Rs 20,000 crore revenue in the near future.

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