Truck drivers and transporters bringing goods into Maharashtra will soon find octroi plazas empty in the coming months, if Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s plan to abolish octroi fructifies.
“Maharashtra will try to do away with the (contentious) octroi tax by the end of the year,” Chavan said addressing a gathering at the CII National Policy meeting.
Octroi will be replaced by local body tax (accounts based levy). Replacement of octroi has been a bone of contention for long among states legislators, since it is a lucrative source of revenue collection for the state.
Instead of paying octroi charges (a percentage of the total value of goods) as transporters enter the city, they will have to pay lumpsum taxes within 40 days of bringing the goods into the city.
The Chief Minister did not elaborate on the mechanism as to how the taxes would be collected.
Maharashtra is the only state in the country where octroi charges are still levied.
satyanarayan.iyer@thehindu.co.in