AP lone state to slash taxes on several local products: Finance Minister

Rajamundry: Andhra Pradesh is the lone state in India that has managed to reduce taxes on several local products through the Goods and Service Tax Council, Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath said on Thursday.

He said AP succeeded in waiving taxes, ushering reforms and reducing and correcting taxes on several products such as mangoes, mango pulp, extra-neutral alcohol and other items.

“After extensive deliberation and research, we succeeded in waiving tax on tamarind (chintapandu), an essential ingredient for cooking food,” said Rajendranath in a press release shared by the state government.

He said the government had received petitions for excluding tamarind from GST from Chittoor and Anantapur districts.

The finance minister observed that even the British government during colonial times had introduced a “Tamarind Tree Law”, which mandated that no such tree should be felled without the permission of the district collector, considering the crucial nature of this ingredient in cooking food.

Rajendranath noted that the tax was waived on reasoning with the Central government about the ubiquitous nature of tamarind, including reminding it of a colonial precedent of exempting the sour spice from taxation.