New Delhi: Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee
today stepped up pressure on Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for withdrawal of service tax levied on Railways in the General Budget presented last week.
"New projects need Rs 80,000 crore. The pending projects
are there. If there is service tax it will be very difficult
to implement them," she said while replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha.
Banerjee said she hoped the Finance Minister will waive
off service tax levied on the Railways as he had done the
previous year.
"It is very difficult to go for new lines. The Budget has
levied Rs 6,000 crore as service tax, I hope the Finance
Minister will exempt Railways from the tax as he had done last
year," she said.
Banerjee was upset over Mukherjee's budget proposal to
bring the Railways in the service tax net.
Rail ministry officials had written to the Finance
Ministry seeking withdrawal of service tax on rail freight.
Withdrawing an earlier exemption, the Union Budget
2010-11 has proposed to levy service tax at 10.3 per cent on
"service provided in relation to transport of goods by rail"
with effect from April 1.
-PTI
First Published: Thursday, March 04, 2010, 23:50