Ahead of the roll of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) across the country on July 1, the Maharashtra Government will convene a three-day special session of the State legislature from May 20 to pass the Maharashtra GST Bill which seeks to protect the financial powers and autonomy of local self-Government bodies like the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the State.
With the legislature having ratified the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill in August 2016 consequent to Parliament passing four GST Bills on April 6 this year, the State Cabine last week cleared the draft Maharashtra GST Bill. This had followed consultations between Finance and Planning Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, during which the Minister had assured the Sena chief that the financial autonomy of local-self Governments would be protected.
Mungantiwar, it may recalled, had met Thackeray last week and sought to allay the fears expressed by the Sena leadership that the introduction of a single tax would nullify local taxes like octroi duty that the civic bodies collect. Shiv Sena had pointed out that the Sena-ruled BMC may lose nearly Rs 7,000 crore on account of octroi getting subsumed after introduction of GST.