Page 78 - Plastics News September 2016

INTETCHHENNOELWOSGY
Maharashtra rati?es GST Bill
Despite doubts raised by the Opposition over a new
tax regime's ?nancial implications for the state's
revenues, the Maharashtra legislature unanimously rati?ed
the Constitutional amendment bill on the goods and
services tax (GST) this month. Chief minister Devendra
Fadnavis tried to convince the legislative council of no
adverse ?nancial implications of the GST on state revenue
and that municipal corporations, especially the BMC,
will not be dependent on the state for funds. Fadnavis
promised that ground work for transparency and ease will
be done before the GST is rolled out in April 2017. GST
subsumes 16-18 different taxes. The proposed levy will
be a single tax that will cover all levies at the Centre and IOCL’s proposal in the recent meeting. After detailed
state levels. It is a value-added tax, which means a levy at deliberation, the Committee sought additional
each stage of production, sale or consumption will be set
off against taxes paid in the previous stage. "Maharashtra
is a manufacturing state and the GST will be bene?cial
to states that are consumers. We have to ensure that our
revenue is not hit and the rate of GST should be decided by
taking into consideration all these things," said Dhananjay
Munde, leader of the Opposition in the council. Former
CM Prithviraj Chavan said the GST rate in Canada, Japan
and Malaysia is 5%, Australia 10% and New Zealand 15%.
"The rate of GST should not be more than 18% as indirect
taxes would burdened the poor," he said. Fadnavis said
under GST, the state government will get a share of service
tax. "There is a GST council under the chairmanship of
the Union ?nance minister and ?nance ministers of all the
states as members. This commitee will decide the rate of
GST and which items and services are to be kept off taxes
and other ?ner details," said Fadnavis and added that the
net of people under taxation will increase and tax evasion
will end, besides bringing in investment.
Plastics News | S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 6 78
Green Panel defers approval
for Indian Oil Corp's Styrene
project
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL)'s proposed setting
up of Styrene and Ethylene recovery units in the
existing Panipat Naphtha Cracker Complex (PNCC)
at an investment outlay of Rs 593 crore has been
deferred by a green panel appointed by the Centre.
The panel has deferred its decision on granting
environment clearance for want of more information.
“The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) examined the
information,” a senior Environment Ministry of?cial
said. The EAC has asked IOCL to provide reasons
for high carbon monoxide (CO) in ambient air and
measure sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions from the
existing unit and any additional SO2 emission from
the proposed unit .Presently, there is no Styrene
producer in the country and entire quantity is
imported by Indian Synthetic Rubber Limited (ISRL).
Since IOCL is a 50% equity holder of ISRL, the
proposed project will ensure steady supply of Styrene
to the Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR) unit of ISRL.
The proposal has been deferred till the desired
information is submitted and site visit is conducted
by the sub-committee of EAC.