Bhubaneswar, May 12: Yesterday the Odisha government approved the GST Bill upon the Cabinet’s approval for implementation in all goods except six. Among the 6 goods which have been kept out of the ambit, 5 are petroleum products and one is alcohol. The five petroleum products on which the State GST will be levied include Petrol, Diesel, Crude Oil, Aviation Fuel and Natural Gas. Finance department secretary, Tuhinkant Pandey explained that after the GST’s implementation, there will be only 3 taxes instead of 17 taxes of the State and Centre and they are the Central GST, State GST and Integrated GST.
The cabinet meeting also cleared 10 other proposals, to waive off VAT on ‘Moong Dal’ keeping in mind the interest of the farmers, Markfed will procure ‘Moong Dal’ at a price of Rs 52.25/ Kg and the State government will bear a loss of Rs 2 crore annually, Finance minister, Sashibhushan Behera said. The Cabinet also approved the proposal to revise the recruitment and promotion of Village Agricultural Worker (VAW) and plus-II has now been made the minimum qualification for recruitment of VAW. The power tariff for captive power plants has been increased to 55 paise from 30 paise per unit which will bring in Rs 875 cr additional revenue to the government. The probe commission’s report on Kalinganagar firing and proposal to waive off stamp duty on 11 railway projects also got clearance by the Cabinet.
