Since the GST has been launched in the State, the State Government has started modifying the modality of levying tax .
Rules and norms applied in the process of preparing estimates for civil works, holding tender of supply, seeking expenditure sanction and encashment permission have been modified to some extent, informed a source .
Principal Secretary (Finance) Vivek Kumar Dewangan issued an office memorandum in this regard on October 11 .
After the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act 2017, Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) Act 2017 and Manipur Goods and Services Tax (MGST) Act 2017 were passed, a new set of rules regarding levying of indirect tax has been introduced in the State .
Following the introduction of GST, eight Central taxes and nine State taxes have been done away with .
Manipur Valued Added tax (MVAT) 2004 which was a major source of revenue for the State Government has been superseded by GST .
This necessitated modification of the norms and rules earlier applied in the process of preparing work estimates, floating tender for supply, seeking/granting expenditure sanction, encashment permission, CDA etc .
Given this scenario, contractors and suppliers who have not registered for GST would not be allotted any contract/supply work concerning Government departments, public sector undertakings, engineering wings, autonomous institutions, grant-in-aid bodies, local self Government bodies and all institutions under administrative control of the State Government, conveyed the source .
It is reported that heads of departments and DDOs who are authorities for issuing cheques for contract and supply works would be held accountable toward making the Government’s new initiative successful .
Earlier, preparation of estimates for civil works was done based on the Manipur Schedule Rate 2015 and this included 5.6 per cent for VAT .
However, this amount of 5.6 per cent would not be reflected in work estimates as per the office memorandum issued by the Finance Department .
Successful bidders of supply works should pay the GST amount.
As such, estimates for supply works should include the GST amount .
Only firms/suppliers registered for GST should be allowed to bid for supply works and the same works should be allotted to firms which have registered for GST .
All administrative departments have been informed to comply with the new set of rules.
It has also been made clear that the Finance Department would not give expenditure sanction for departments/proposals which do not adhere to the same rules .
The new rules would be applied to all work orders and supply orders issued after July 1 this year.
Notably, GST was launched across the country on July 1 .
The new rules would not be applied to work orders and supply orders issued before GST came into force .
Chief Minister N Biren stated in the State Assembly that the State Government was targeting to collect a revenue of Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore from GST in a year.
Source: The Sangai Express
