No octroi on gold and silver

The Standing committee of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Thursday decided to scrap off octroi on gold and silver that the Commissioner had proposed in the budget. No octroi will now be levied on bringing gold and silver into the city.

The Commissioner, in the 2001-02 AMC budget, had proposed an octroi of one per cept on gold and silver. The Standing Committee passed the proposal by reducing the octroi to 0.5 per cent. However, after representations made by various traders, the ruling Congress decided to do away with octroi on gold and silver.

The State Government, as such, was against levying octroi on gold and silver. The proposal will be brought for approval at the general board meeting on Friday, Standing Committee chairman Badruddin Shaikh said.

In another decision, the Standing Committee asked the vigilance department to carry out an investigation against two of its employees of the property tax department, against whom allegations of demanding bribe for under evaluating property tax were made.

The Standing Committee also postponed the proposal of the octroi committee to scrap the earlier proposal that allowed BSNL and Reliance Infocom to. bring equipment into the city without paying octroi.

Republished from The Asian Age