Belagavi: Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy told the Assembly on Friday, that the government would fix the loopholes and plug leakages in the implementation of the Goods and Service Tax (GST).
During a debate on the Karnataka Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018, which was passed by the Assembly, Kumaraswamy informed that so far, 60 people have been booked for providing false information and eight have been arrested.
Replying to the BJP legislators who asked if the state government received satisfactory compensation from the central government and if there were any losses under the uniform taxation regime, the CM said, “The GST compensation from the Centre in 2017-18 was Rs 7,500 crore. This year, it may be less.”
The bill states: “It is considered necessary to amend the Karnataka Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (Karnataka Act 27 of 2017) to implement the new return filing system and also to overcome the difficulties of filing returns and payment of tax under the GST Act on the lines recommended by the GST Council.”
The Assembly also passed the Karnataka Land Revenue (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, and the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill, 2018.
The Karnataka Land Revenue Bill extends the time for the constitution of committees headed by MLAs to dispose of applications seeking regularisation of unauthorised occupation or cultivation of government land (bagair hukum) by two years.
The Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Bill proposes to make all stages of tendering be made public by replacing the existing e-procurement portal with a new Karnataka public procurement portal.
The BJP expressed concern that the proposed amendments would do little to streamline the existing tender process, and demanded a joint selection committee to review the Bill.
Kumaraswamy passed the Bill, assuring the BJP that the amendments proposed were minor in nature and that the government was ready to review the tendering process.
