Liquor, cigarettes, gutka to cost more in Maharasthra

Mumbai, Mar 22 (UNI) Tobacco and its products will become costlier from April 1 in Maharashtra with the State government proposing to levy 12.5 per cent tax to generate additional revenue in fiscal 2007-08 as Finance Minister Jayant Patil today presented a Rs 510.68 crore surplus budget in the Assembly.

The government, however, exempted Bidis and unmanufactured tobacco from the proposed tax.

Mr Patil said exemptions and concessions granted to foodgrains, flour, chillies, turmeric, coconut, Solapuri chaddar (bedspread) and tea will continue for another six months.

Processing of textiles will not be taxed till imposition of VAT (value added tax) on textiles is permitted, he informed.

Transactions in commodity markets are also proposed to be exempted retrospectively from stamp duty, if both the broker and investor reside outside the state, he added.

The Finance Minister envisaged a 13 per cent average growth rate of revenue in the next two years.

He said minimum rate of excise duty on country made liquor will be increased from Rs 55 per litre to Rs 60. MRP on Indian Manufactured Foreign Liquor (IMFL) will be four times the manufacturing cost, if it is upto Rs 92 per litre. There will be no change in the MRP of fermented beer, but excise duty will be increased from being equal to 100 per cent of manufacturing cost to 125 per cent of the manufacturing cost.

He said Maharashtra will lose about Rs 1,000 crore due to the central government's decision to reduce rate of central sales tax from four to three per cent from April 1, 2007.

UNI