Printers rejoice with exemption in LBT ruling

The news of the Local Body Tax (LBT) not being levied from 1 October, came as a relief to the publishers and traders in Maharashtra. Earlier, the news of LBT imposition received a stern response from the print community, with the supply of paper and board being interrupted and the printers losing their customers.

24 Jul 2013 | By PrintWeek India

The issue was taken up by associations like the Bombay Master Printers' Association (BMPA), which registered the issue before the Paper Trader Association (PTA), the chief minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chauhan and wrote letters to print CEOs in Mumbai and across Maharashtra.

Anand Limaye, a senior printer and head of India Printing Works was of the opinion that the abolition of octroi check-posts and conversion of octroi is acceptable if merged with VAT, as declared by the government earlier. He felt this should not be done "under the guise of LBT". With the exemption of the 'draconian' ruling, he maintained, "Had the law been imposed, and the strike persisted, we would lose business on a large scale. Most printers already incurred losses as the customers had their options open of directing the orders to printers in other states."

The LBT Act hit the book publishing industry, too. While most books have had Octroi tax exemption in Maharashtra, the LBT would translate into decline in the publishers' profits in Mumbai and Pune. 

Deepak Sheth at Mumbai-based Sheth Publishers said,"We are more than happy with the LBT ruling being discarded. Had it been imposed, it would be a different picture altogether." Sheth added, "According to the charter signed with UNESCO, which provides aid for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan initiative, no kind of tax should or can be levied on education, a provision which was violated with the imposition of the law." Sheth, along with other publishers, sent a petition to the government, highlighting the UNESCO provisions, thus receiving an exemption from the law.