Odisha Assembly passes Apartment, VAT Bills

Bhubaneswar, Aug 25: Odisha assembly passed two bills – the Odisha Apartment Ownership (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and Odisha Value-Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2015 amid uproar and walkout by the opposition parties on Monday. The opposition parties staged walkout demanding discussion on these bills as speaker Niranjan Pujari did not accept their demand.  These two bills were passed in the assembly through a voice vote.

The Odisha Apartment Ownership (Amendment) Bill, 2015 has replaced the Odisha Apartment Ownership Act, 1982. The Odisha Value-Added Tax  (Amendment) Bill, 2015 empowers the state government to increase the threshold limit for liability to pay tax from Rs.1 lakh to Rs.10 lakh in the case of manufacturer and Rs.5 lakh to Rs.10 lakh for general traders.