With the state?s commercial taxes department assuring industry that it was working on a new VAT structure for sale of India Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and would withdraw the 50% multi-point VAT it had imposed, IMFL shops reopened on Tuesday.
The closure was called off on Monday but due to the bandh, it is effectively from today that the 2,500-odd bars, restaurants and IMFL shops in the state actually restarted business.
?We have been assured that the notification suggesting abnormal increase (in VAT of 50% at each stage) has been withdrawn and that there would now only be a reasonable hike,” said Anup Chawla, secretary, Jharkhand Wine Dealers? Association (JWDA), talking to Fe from Ranchi.
Chawla said the new VAT structure would be announced shortly. ?We are awaiting the new (VAT) notification which the commercial taxes department has assured would be a reasonable one,? said the JWDA secretary.
Asked if the new VAT imposition would still be multi-point, the JWDA secretary said instead of the earlier notification which effectively meant 50% VAT at each of the three stages of trade, there could now be a lower VAT rate limited to only a couple of stages. ?We have conveyed that we have no difficulty in taking on a nominal hike,? said an IMFL retailer.
Asked at what rate they would be selling IMFL products till the new notification came, the JWDA secretary said all shops and establishments would be selling IMFL at the MRP suggested on the products.
The IMFL trade in the state had kept its shutters down from July 1 as a mark of protest against the commercial taxes department?s decision to adopt a 50% multi-point VAT system with retrospective effect from June 23, 2010 in place of the existing 50% VAT at the first point.