GST on TTD opposed

New Delhi: YSRCP MP V Vijayasai Reddy here on Tuesday asked the Centre to stop discriminating against the TTD and withdrawal of the GST on the trust board. He wondered how could the BJP, a representative of the Hindus, impose GST on the Devasthanam Board that was rendering only seva (service) to the people.

Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha while speaking on the Money Bill, Vijayasai Reddy said the TTD was paying the Centre Rs 120 crore towards GST every year but was getting back only Rs 9 crore as input credit. The AP government had exempted TTD as well all the temples in the state from paying taxes on the services extended to the devotees.

Though there was an exemption of TTD laddus from the taxation, all the ingredients that go into it were being taxed. It was wrong to invoke GST on the cottages where the devotees stay in Tirumala on par with the taxation on private hotels, he said. The TTD was not a profit-oriented body but only was constituted to serve the devotees.

He regretted the neglect of the promises made during the bifurcation of the state in 2014, including the creation of a separate railway zone for Visakhapatnam. The demand for establishment of CAT (Central Administrative Tribunal) was also pending along with that of Mega Textiles Parks in Anantapur and Nellore and National Institute of Technology at Visakhapatnam, he said.

He sought continuation of NREGS works in coffee plantation areas of Araku as at least a lakh of tribals in the region were dependent on those. Hence, it should not be withdrawn, he said.

The MP was also told by the Union minister Prahlad Singh Patel that Rs 26.17 crore had been allocated for the Buddhist Circuit in AP.