New Delhi, Apr 20 (KNN) The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the state of Madhya Pradesh will go on a state-wide agitation if the government fails to address the issue of multiple taxes on land, MSME body Laghu Udhyog Bharti said.

Talking to KNN, Laghu Udhyog Bharti (LUB) State General Rajesh Mishra said that the MSMEs in Madhya Pradesh are suffering due to the multiple taxes laid on the land.

Explaining the problem further, Mishra said that MSMEs at present are forced to pay three taxes on land including lease rent, maintenance charge and property tax. While lease rent is a rational one, the other two are just to overburden and kill MSMEs, he said.

Maintenance Charge

Mishra said that the authority responsible for the land works in the state was earlier a corporation which got transformed into a company now. This has resulted in the increase in their expenses for which they are milking the micro, small and medium enterprises.

Mishra raised that on one hand the government is getting benefitted by the micro and small industries in the form of their economic contribution, on the other hand they are being asked to pay irrational maintenance charges.

Property tax

Mishra informed that with the city expanding, civic bodies such as Nagar Nigam started charging the micro and small enterprises property tax.

“Earlier the MSMEs were located on the outskirts, but with the expansion of cities, civic bodies took charge of these areas and hence started extracting revenue from the MSMEs. Also these tax are not even uniform in the state, making it further illogical”, he said.

Lease rent

The only rational tax which the industry is willing to accept is the one on lease rent, Mishra said. He however maintained that even with this particular tax, there is an unnatural hike in the amount in the last ten years.

State-wide protests

Mishra said that the industry has given the government a period of 15 days to hold talks and solve the problem.

“We have urged the government to address our problems soon, within 15 days, if not we are to go on a district level, state wide protests”, he added. (KNN/DA)