GCCI BULLETIN DECEMBER 2019
23RD JAN 2020
Dear members,
Traditionally known as the month of festivities, December this year is starting with lots of hope in anticipation of an improved economy.
Unfortunately all over the country, the focus is diverted from economic issues to social matters Be it CAA/NCR/JNU or violence related to the same. The government machinery is spending time handling these disruptive matters and the priorities have thus shifted. The burning issue of the economic downturn has taken a backseat over these social disruptions. I strongly feel that a robust & focused approach is lacking which would have made all of us in business and industry prosper. Of course, the southward movement of the world economy is also not helping the cause.
There were some good initiatives taken by the central government. A case to point is the Dispute Resolution Scheme of GST ( Sabka Vishwas). As per the information available, this has been a resounding success and has achieved over 150% of the targeted figures. In Goa too, hundreds of businesses have availed of this scheme and now can breathe a sigh of relief as unproductive disputes are done away with.
Probably a similar scheme to tackle the long pending disputes during the VAT regime will go a long way to help the cause of the industry and also garner revenues for the government.
As you all must be aware the 50% reduction in road tax offered by Goa Government has been a huge success. The state has mopped up about 80% increased revenue by way of GST and Road tax collections. More importantly, this has been a boost to the automobile sector in the state thus saving businesses from closing down and saving thousands of jobs. Probably extension by a few months would have helped but then this small step by the Goa government has shown intent to help an ailing industry & we should be thankful to the CM Dr. Pramod Sawant and the Transport Minister Mr. Mauvin Godinho for this bold decision. Needless to mention the public at large has benefited tremendously.
Hopefully, Goa Government will take a clue from this and initiate to implement similar schemes in other industries like Real Estate wherein a lot of revenue can be mopped by the government if relief is given in the stamp duty & registration rates. This will help all in the industry as well as the public to regularise their property titles.
As we enter into the last quarter of this fiscal, lots of expectations will be there from the budget both Central as well as State and hopefully, the direction will be set for boosting industrial growth.
Wishing all of you the best of festivities this year-ended in anticipation of 2020 being a year of growth.
Best Regards
Manoj M. Caculo
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Goa Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI) is Goa’s premier non-profit business, support-services and networking organization. We represent and liaise with SME’s, Corporate Organisations and Government bodies.
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