BENGALURU: Trade and business community in the state incurred a loss of Rs 75,000 crore during the lockdown period and the loss of revenue by tax to the state is around Rs 10,000 crore per month, says the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI). Around 30 lakh people lost jobs and it would take nearly two years for the industries to recover from the impact, FKCCI chairman Perikal M Sundar said on Thursday.
The trade body urged the government to announce a special economic package of Rs 20,000 crore that includes 50 per cent concession on property taxes, reimbursement of salaries and wages for three months and interest subvention of loans availed from banks and KSFC for six months.
“The government has received revenue in the form of GST of around Rs 84,000 crore, Rs 22,851 crore from the state excise, Rs 16,000 crore from petrol and diesel, and Rs 1,20,000 crore from income tax approximately. Given the difficulty faced by trade and industry, the government should consider allocating at least 10 per cent of the revenue which has been generated by the trade and industry,” he said.
FKCCI objected to the power tariff hike and urged the government to reduce power tax from nine per cent to three per cent so that power cost per unit will come down to around 42 paise which will mitigate the negative effect of the power tariff hike allowed by KERC.
On fuel price hike, the chairman said currently the Central government is levying 30 per cent on excise duty and state government is levying 35 per cent as tax on the basic price of petrol and diesel. The Central and state governments should reduce the excise duty and tax to about 15% on petrol and diesel, he said.
He urged the state government to procure all its requirements from MSMEs located in Karnataka by giving price preference. FKCCI also urged the government to start operating buses to enable the staff and employees to travel to the industries as only around 20 per cent of employees are to reach their workplace in the absence of public transport.