KOCHI: Mayor Soumini Jain has approached the state government to clear the ‘contradictions’ in the new tax regime system restricting the local bodies from collecting entertainment and advertisement taxes after the implementation of GST.
She said, as per the 101st amendment of the Constitution, entry number 62 of 7th Schedule permits levy and collection of entertainment tax by local bodies.“The entertainment tax collected by the state comes under GST,” Soumini said.“It is clearly mentioned the local government can continue the tax collection. But the government order strictly restricts them from doing so. The government should look into the matter and should allow local bodies to collect the tax.”
The Mayor also said that when the GST came into force, the Tamil Nadu government revoked the local body entertainment tax using section 174 of GST.“As per this, the government enacted a new common law for the urban and local bodies to enable themselves to levy and collect tax on entertainment. But the Kerala Government, without considering this, issued an order terminating the rights of local bodies to collect entertainment tax. The state government should reinstate the rule which permits local bodies to collect such taxes,” the Mayor said.
The local bodies, she said, are in huge financial crisis after the government took away their right to collect the taxes a year ago.“In the past year alone, the Kochi Corporation could make a revenue of `12.5 crore and `2.02 crore by imposing entertainment and advertisement taxes respectively. But with the implementation of GST, since July 1, the revenue faced a new dip,” she said.