Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, July 14: BJP leaders led by party’s GST awareness campaign Incharge in Sikkim and State Party General Secretary, Shyamal Pal met Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh here today and briefed him about GST implementation in the State and the different programmes planned by the Party’s State Unit for awareness among traders and the consumers.
Dr Jitendra Singh complimented the State of Sikkim for a smooth roll-out of GST on the midnight of June 30th and July 1st, and complimented the people of this tiny peripheral State for having diligently overcome the difficulties of the transition phase to ensure successful implementation of “One Tax, One Nation”. He said, incidentally, because of the ongoing disturbance in the Darjeeling region, there could be an obvious possibility of shortage of certain goods, though not because of GST, and the party Karyakartas will have to go to the people and offer assistance to them.
Referring to a query in certain quarters that while the tax exemption limit of GST has been fixed at Rs. 20 lakh in other States, why for 11 States, including Sikkim, it is fixed at Rs. 10 lakh, Dr Jitendra Singh said, it is important to make the business community realize that the earlier tax limit for Sikkim was only about Rs. 3 to 4 lakh per annum and therefore, the tax limit fixed by GST has, in fact, brought huge relief by allowing twice the number of small and medium traders to remain out of the tax purview. Even rationally, he clarified, if the limit was fixed at Rs. 20 lakh like some of the more developed States, in that case a majority of the population in a State like Sikkim would likely to be exempted from any of the tax which would neither be in the interest of State ex-chequer nor in the interest of public welfare schemes for the poor.
Much of the revenue in Sikkim, said Dr Jitendra Singh, is earned from tourism and the purchases made by the tourists. To that extent, therefore, he said, this is going to be win-win arrangement.
Dr Jitendra Singh also referred to the ongoing airport construction work at Pakyong near Gangtok which was reportedly disrupted due to a landslide, but hoped that it will get completed in the next few months, which will be a huge boost for tourism and trade.
Shyamal Pal also presented to Dr Jitendra Singh a copy of “Narendra Modi Vichar Manch” journal and said, a new office has been set up for the purpose in Gangtok, which they would like to be formally inaugurated by Dr Jitendra Singh on the date of his convenience.
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