Octroi abolition bill passed in Guj Assembly

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

Gandhinagar, Jul 20 (UNI) The much awaited 'Octroi Abolition Bill' was today passed in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, without resistence from the opposition Congress members as they also welcomed it in view of the forthcoming assembly election.

The Octroi Abolition Bill-2007 (The Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations (Gujarat Second Amendment) bill-2007) was introduced in the House by Urban Development Minister I K Jadeja.

Mr Jadeja informed the House that the bill will come into effect in seven civic corporations--Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Junagadh from November 15.

He said with the abolition of octroi from seven civic coporations, they will lose their annual income of over nearly Rs 1,600-crore. However, the state has already introduced Value Added Tax in these seven civic bodies.

The abolition of octroi from the state was promised by the ruling BJP in its last election manifesto in year-2002.

The opposition Congress members alleged that the introduction of the bill in the house by the BJP to keep its promise just months before the next polls, was a 'election gimmick to woo the voters'.

The Congress leader of opposition Arjun Modhvadia, in his debate-speech on the bill, said it was purely an election gimmick and wondered why the promise was not immediately kept by the ruling BJP.

''If it was not like that then BJP should also keep its other over 350 promises it had made to voters in last elections'', he said.

Home Minister Amit Shah also introduced 'The Bombay Police (Gujarat Amendment) bill, 2007, which he claimed was aimed at bringing transparency in the functioning of law enforcement agencies in the state.

UNI

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X