Supreme Court refuses to grant interim stay on Local Body Tax

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today refused to stay imposition of Local Body Tax (LBT) for every raw material used or imported into city limits by all businesses, traders and manufacturers.

A bench headed by Justice H L Dattu refused the plea of Maharashtra traders' associations which had pleaded for interim stay on the Tax.

The bench, however, asked the Mumbai High Court to decide on their petition challenging validity of LBT expeditiously.

LBT is an account-based cess collection and will be charged for every raw material used or imported into the city limits by all businesses, traders and manufacturers.

Maharashtra government will implement LBT to replace the traditional octroi in its cities. In Mumbai, which is the only city that charges octroi at 4 per cent, LBT will come into effect from October while other cities in the state have already gone the LBT way.

Wholesale and retail traders from Mumbai, Thane and Nagpur have been on an indefinite strike against LBT.