The State government was losing a lot of revenue due to invoicing of many medicines being done in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, medical equipment traders and medicine dealers told the State Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy here on Monday.
Andhra Pradesh’s first-ever Trade Advisory Committee meeting was held here and Mr. Rajendranath Reddy patiently interacted with the representatives from various sectors to understand their problems related to the GST and Commercial Taxes in the State so that the government could take up corrective steps.
P. Ranga Reddy, representing the drugs and medicine dealers, said that many of the companies had shifted from Vijayawada to Hyderabad and when they bought stock from those companies, either Telangana or Karnataka was getting the revenue from GST/Commercial Tax.
Dispute resolution
Anantapur district was the highest revenue earner with regard to Commercial Taxes in the State for the past three years, said Mr. Venkata Nagendra, representing the Chartered Accountants, but pointed out that settlement of disputes was getting delayed as the appellate authority was functioning only from Visakhapatnam.
“For small disputes of ₹40,000 to ₹50,000 also the CAs need to go to Vizag making it uneconomical for the clients and that should be addressed by offering a One-Time Settlement or periodical zone-wise conduct of the meeting of the Appellate authority so that traders/CAs could approach without spending much,” he said.
The Finance Minister said that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was firm on creating a conducive atmosphere for the businesses in the State, which had helped Andhra Pradesh reach the fourth place in the country in exports.
Regular meetings
The Trade Advisory Committee meetings would from now on be a regular affair to understand the problems of the traders and resolve them so that the State revenue would also increase due to the removal of the bottlenecks, he said.
As part of improving the industrial atmosphere in the State the Hyderabad-Bengaluru corridor was being promoted and, as part of that, an Industrial Hub was coming up at Orvakal in Kurnool district in 9,000 acres and skill development hubs were being created in all Assembly constituencies. Out of the proposed 176, the government had already made 66 functional, he added.
