BJP MDC, Bernard Marak staged a walk out from the ongoing session of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council over what he alleged were discreet amendments made to the Trading by Non – Tribals (TNT) raising the rates to double/triple of the earlier taxes.
“I walked out during the presentation of the Bill to amend TNT tax rates yesterday. The bill discreetly aims to make GST applicable in the GHADC and there was no proper clarification by the EM of Taxation, Grahambell Sangma in spite of query put before him some months ago and also discussed in the circuit house,” said Bernard in a release today.
The BJP MDC stated that no proper clarification was made by the EM but an attempt to approve the bill, which he felt would dilute the Council as the GHADC does not fall under the purview of GST.
“The TNT rates were hiked exorbitantly targeting the small time businessmen while the big companies which are working in partnership with some politicians paid meagre amounts compared to the volume of transactions they made,” he alleged.
He further added that the bill was being presented now when in reality the GHADC has imposed these rates on the traders long before the bill was approved.
“The bill aimed to triple the amounts paid by traders in some cases whereas the big companies gets to pay less. Moreover, there was no consultation by the concerned EM on the issue and he failed to reply to queries put before him regarding hiking of taxes and imposing it on the traders before it was approved by the Governor,” said Bernard.
The Tura MDC added that making GST applicable in GHADC was already discussed but the NPP led EC were discreetly trying to get it passed and he did not want to be part of it.
