Sandesh Prabhudesai
9 October 1999
"All lobbies are now after my blood, still I am trying to improve Goa's financial health without taxing the common citizen", claims chief minister Luizinho Faleiro.
Clearing the confusion over what transpired at the meeting between the government and the industry, he has now clarified that the decision to withdraw sales tax exemption would continue till the cabinet meets again.
"I will see how I can give them one-month time technically", he says, dismissing the industry's claim that the earlier decision to impose half of the sales tax has been kept in abeyance.
He however did not appear so firm to go ahead with the decision 'even at the cost of losing my position'. On the contrary, he is prepared to examine industry's proposals like infrastructure tax or turnover tax, to generate revenue.
Faleiro still claims that he would not go for loans any more for non-plan expenditure or impose taxes on the public for resource mobilisation. But he keeps quite when asked whether the infrastructure tax or the turnover tax would not ultimately affect the general public.
The chief minister was also not clear whether the working group he has formed to examine industry's proposals to mobilise additional resources would submit its report within a month or three months and whether the sales tax would not be collected till then.
"I cannot tell you anything till I go back to the cabinet. Try to understand my difficulty", he pleaded with journalists.
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