It has been more than a decade now since the call for octroi abolition was first raised by the trade. While the octroi has been done away with across the country, Maharashtra and Gujarat continue with the ‘octroi raj’. And the reason for this is not far to seek. While the end is clearly defined, the means to achieve it are still blurred.
While the trade has rallied around the state associations, the representative bodies have failed to pursue the matter consistently and effectively to build up pressure on the state authorities to get octroi abolished. In the present scenario, it seems a far-fetched dream, given the disparate and knee-jerk campaigns.
For example, an association in Gujarat last raised the issue of octroi four months back and left it at that, while yet others raise the issue unilaterally with the respective state authorities and suggest self-formulated alternatives. In Maharashtra, the state authorities are yet to revert back on the suggestions forwarded. Another drawback is that the partners dealing in software are less concerned about octroi than their hardware counterparts as octroi is not much of an issue or a concern with them.
Primarily, associations across the board should come together and chalk out a cohesive action plan with a practical solution, and should not be seen as dithering. Some unanimity has emerged only this year in Maharashtra to follow up the issue incessantly and at regular intervals.
Channel partners too should try and rope in major distributors and manufacturers to lend further impetus to the campaign to abolish octroi. If need be, the associations should seriously consider stop paying VAT, the very basis of which was to have one uniform taxation – as a protest measure. The associations should be seen to mean business, or else the issue will keep languishing.
The octroi issue ultimately boils down to a matter of will power, on the side of both the trade and the state governments. If the erstwhile Haryana CM, Omprakash Chautala, could abolish octroi within 24 hours after assuming power, there is no reason why the state governmets in Maharashtra and Gujarat cannot hasten up the matter if not emulate Chautala.