CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday opposed the inclusion of the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) under the purview of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act saying this is against the interest of traders across the country and that it would adversely affect small traders.
Further, there's the likelihood of many businesses getting affected due to the inclusion, said Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu, raising the issue at the 50th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax Council held under the chairmanship of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the national capital.
He said the Centre had through a notification on July 7 brought an amendment to the provisions of the PMLA, 2002, to include the GSTN, which handles the technology backbone of GST, in the list of entities with which ED will share information, he said.
"This is against the interest of traders and against the basic objective of decriminalising violations under the Goods and Services Tax Act. Therefore, the Tamil Nadu government is opposed to this considering that it will affect traders across the country, especially small traders," he said in an official release here.
On the GST Council's decision to impose a 28 per cent tax on the turnover of online gaming companies, horse racing and casinos, Thennarasu insisted that the Government of Tamil Nadu has enacted an Act to Prohibit Online Gambling and Regulate Online Games and therefore the recommendations for taxation of online games under the GST should be in accordance with the Tamil Nadu Act.
He hailed the GST Council's decision to exempt cancer-fighting drugs and medicines for rare diseases from the levy and said Tamil Nadu expressed its support for the proposed tax exemption to reduce the additional cost of Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) payable on import of expensive cancer drugs for personal use.
"The Government of Tamil Nadu expresses its support for the proposed exemption of IGST payable on import of drugs and food for personal use for the treatment of certain rare diseases," the Minister said.
The state government continued to oppose the proposed amendment to define certain tax-exempt species as it will create an additional financial burden on the local bodies and the state government, hence this should be abandoned, he said.