Finance minister gets Sena on-board on second visit

Mumbai: Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar’s second consecutive visit on Tuesday to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s residence turned fruitful for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was, quite evidently, disturbed over Sena’s ambiguous stand on the Goods and Services (GST) Bill. It must be noted that Sena’s support of 63 MLAs is very crucial for the BJP to get the ambitious Bill passed. The special session for passing the same will begin on May 20 to 22.

According to sources, the state finance ministry has been working overnight to finalise the details of GST, especially on the compensation to civic bodies over octroi loss. Sena having control on the richest civic body in India, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that has a budget of almost Rs 36,000 crore, Mr Thackeray had raised serious objections on revenue loss after cancellation of octroi. Octroi collection for the BMC in 2016 was around Rs 7300 crore and the civic body is expected to lose this huge amount after GST Bill is passed.

Citing his concern over the same, Mr Thackeray had indicated in a recent party meeting that the party could take extreme step on the state’s stability if the revenue issue didn’t get solved before assembly session. To address to the issue, Mr Mungantiwar suggested supporting the bill of ‘Compensation to Municipalities’ over loss of revenue, in which state finance ministry has given compensation formula of 8 per cent per year hike in fund allotted by state government to civic body. Sena leadership has agreed to this formula and is ready to support GST.  

Maharashtra is the most industrialised state in the country and a key for the implementation of GST.