Deputy Chief Minister Yumnam Joykumar, also in-charge of Finance, on Thursday assured the House that the state will consider suggestions to review Value Added Tax (VAT) on petroleum products. Joykumar was replying to queries raised by opposition MLA Surjakumar Okram during the question hour of the ongoing budget session of the House.
The deputy chief minister said the existing VAT levied on petroleum products in the state is comparatively similar to other North Eastern States. The revisions in VAT on petroleum products like petrol and diesel since 2017 have been taken up thrice on October 4, 2018 October 22, 2019 and May 6, 2020 respectively, he said.
Subsequently, the public notice was issued by the Government for the increments/revisions of the 22 October, 2 019, he said while adding that for the other two cases namely 4 October, 2018 and 6 May 2020, the fourteen (14) days public notice was not issued.
Explaining the reason for the non issuance of the 14-day public notice of the revisions in the mentioned two cases, Joykumar said that the increments/revision of 4th October 2018, the VAT rate of petrol was reduced from 25% to 21.2% and that of Diesel from 14.5% to 10.6%.
The 14-day public notice was not issued as the government had decided to transfer the benefit of tax decrease in petrol and diesel immediately to the consumer.
Joykumar further clarified that the non issuance of the fourteen (14) days public notice for the 6 May 2020 was due to the urgent need for additional resources to meet the high expenses incurred due to COVID –19 pandemic.\During the time of unprecedented emergency there was a sharp decline in both GST and VAT collection, he said. Moreover, there was an urgent requirement of huge resources to combat the pandemic, he added.
The construction work of Dolaithabi Barrage Project is aimed to finish completely by March, minister of Water Resources, Letpao Haokip said replying to a question raised by MLA, Th Lokeshwar Singh in the ongoing 12th session of the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
Letpao said that the project was one of the flag projects of the present government and proceeds to work with some targets. In view of this, it was inaugurated even if some parts are yet to complete its construction. He continued that the reason of not being able to complete the construction work of the canal is due to lack of function due to pending court cases for purchase of land for construction of canals. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic also hinders the work progress.
Nevertheless the government is trying to complete construction work of every section of the project by March 2021.
Letpao said that to construct the right main canal, compensation for 243 people amounting to Rs 8,29,22,000 was deposited to DC Imphal East. Out of it, 229 land owners had taken the compensation and the rest 14 people with a total value of Rs 53.04 lakh are yet to accept. This is one major reason for not being able to carry forward the project. As such, it would be grateful if the concerned MLA appeases them to accept the compensation amount.
Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Thongam Biswajit said that under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), 18,640 houses was allotted for financial year (FY) 2019 to 2020, based on socio-economic caste census 2011. Of it, 18,455 units had started construction and 10,030 were completed.
He stated this while replying to the question raised by MLA, N Loken Singh. He further said that another 15,842 houses have been allotted for FY 2020-2021. Out of it, 13,861 have been sanctioned till date. Funds for above houses are yet to be released by the ministry of Rural Development.
When asked whether the state could achieve the said target by 2022 as the government of India targeted to provide houses to all under this scheme by 2022, he said that the main problem is that less number of people are registering to avail the scheme than the allotted number. However the government is also identifying people who can enjoy the scheme.
