Print

GST - Public procurement - Govt saved Rs 1600 Cr due to low tax: Paswan

Published: Feb 10, 2018

By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, FEB 10, 2018: THE Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, referring to the benefits made to his Ministry due to the implementation of GST by the Government, yesterday said that only GST has remained at the place of taxation imposed by various states. Due to this, the tax on government procurement has decreased by 18%, saving the Government Rs.1600 crores.

The Union Minister said that in order to consolidate the data of the public distribution system to the national level, the Ministry recently has given its approval for a new scheme of 127 crore rupees. In this scheme, State level PDS portal to be integrated with the National PDS Portal. This will enable the data of the entire country to be available at one place. Long-term loans are provided to the farmers in the government procurement by the Food Corporation of India, which is used to repay the amount. The government has also decided to restructure the capital finances of the Indian Food Corporation.

In public distribution system, transparency has been brought out and the cheaper grains reach the right beneficiary, the ration cards have been linked to the Aadhar and to ensure that PoS machines have been installed at ration shops. Mr Paswan said that 2.75 crore fake, duplicate and illegal ration cards have been sacked from this campaign, so that the subsidy of Rs.17, 500 crores has been successful in reaching the right beneficiaries. Continuing this campaign, he said that now the aim of his ministry is to make the arrangements for the poor to give grains to their mindset ration shops. For this, Portability of PDS will be done in a phased manner in the country as a core banking, that is, within the same state, the beneficiary will be independent of any ration shop to take the grain as per his entitlement. This advertisement is already underway in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi.

Mr Paswan said that due to the online program of the Depot Online program, there has been an increase in work capacity and loss of stolen and grain losses on Depot Levels of the Indian Food Corporation. Through the procurement of farmers, through the purchase of government, the minimum support price for paddy and wheat has been benefited due to the direct payment to the farmers from online procurement and transparency has also been there. Work is being done for the Food Corporation of India and the State Food Corporation on the scheme of making 100 Lakh tonnes of steel silo for the modern storage of grain.