Share GST income with BBMP: Gunashekar
Speaking at the BBMP council meet on Tuesday, Mr Gunashekar said, “The state government earns thousands of crores from Bengaluru city.
Bengaluru: With Bengaluru’s infrastructure in doldrums including the roads and drainage system, chairman of the BBMP’s taxation and finance committee, Mr Gunashekar has made an impassioned plea for providing 20% of the Goods and Service Tax(GST) collected from the city to the cash strapped BBMP.
Speaking at the BBMP council meet on Tuesday, Mr Gunashekar said, “The state government earns thousands of crores from Bengaluru city. But after GST was implemented, the revenue is getting shared between the Centre and the state government.”
As per the 74th constitutional amendment, urban local bodies have to be strengthened and for this, at least 20 per cent share of the GST income is needed, he explained.
He requested BBMP Mayor G. Padmavathi, BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad and the BBMP council to take a decision in this regard immediately and forward it to the state government’s revenue department which in turn will have to write a letter to the GST council to make the allotment of the tax share possible.
Prior to this, leader of the opposition in the BBMP, Padmanabha Reddy objected to the convening of the special council meet and said that after the notification for the BBMP mayoral election, calling a special meet was a violation of the KMC Act.
In her reply, BBMP Mayor Padmavathi said that there was no violation and the special meet was convened only to share details of the recent GST with elected representatives.
According to her, after the mayoral election notification, the council should not take any major decision.