Government of Rajasthan has power to charge tax/cess payable under the provisions of Rajasthan Agriculture Produce Marketing Act, 1961 from its members post GST regime.

Case Details:

Issue- In the above case, the petitioner was a Society registered under the provisions of Society Registration Act, 1958 who has filed a writ petition, seeking a declaration to the effect that State has no power to charge tax/cess payable under the provisions of Rajasthan Agriculture Produce Marketing Act, 1961 from its members.

Held- It was held that on the advent of GST regime with respect to the Indirect Taxes, under entry 66 of concurrent list, all earlier taxes being levied and collected by the Central Government such as Central Sales Tax, Service Tax, Excise Duty etc. have been brought under one umbrella viz. Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017; whereas the State levies such taxes as Sales Tax, Entry Tax etc. have been subsumed in the State GST Acts. Both those enactments contain a repeal and saving provision in the form of Section 174, enumerating various taxes which have been done away with and by a combined effect of Section 174 of CGST Act and RGST Act, the levy governed by only those enactments have been abolished, which have been enlisted in said sections. The market fee leviable under the Act of 1961 neither finds mention in any of the repeal and saving provisions, nor can it be so done, as the market fee is leviable under a separate enactment under the State’s power to legislate under Entry 66 of the List-II of the VIIth Schedule. Therefore, writ petition was dismissed.