Team Herald
PANJIM: BJP National President Amit Shah on Saturday said that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will benefit small states and Goa will now receive its tax share with 14 percent increase from the central government.
“It is due to GST that BJP has been able to bring uniformity where all states will get equal benefit,” Shah said, addressing the gathering of newly-elected BJP-affiliated sarpanchas and panchas.
“When the Congress was ruling at the Centre, Goa’s share in central tax was Rs 3791 crore for five years, however, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi government Goa’s share has been increased to Rs 14,910 crore,” Shah claimed.
He said that grants for State Disaster Response for Goa have been increased from Rs 12 core to Rs 15 crore by the BJP government. Earlier grants for local bodies were Rs 18 crore for a period of five years and now are Rs 354 crore.
“28,637 toilets have been built by the BJP government in Goa and the Centre has sanctioned Rs 108 crore to the Panjim Municipality in the year 2016 under Smart City initiative. Tourism in the State will also get a boost with new Mopa airport as the flow of the tourists from will rise from 8 million to 39 million per year,” he said.
Shah added that development will be doubled and claimed that India has emerged as the fastest growing economy in the world during the last three years. “What Congress couldn’t do in 50 years BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done in first three years regime at the Centre,” he added.
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‘Food in restaurants cheaper due to GST’
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday said he expects that GST will increase the State revenue from 25 to 30 percent. “Four percent tax has come down on food in restaurants due to GST, food items have also become cheaper and for a consumer it will be profitable,” Parrikar said. He also said that administrative change will come in due to GST and the chances of corruption will reduce.
