Ranchi: Traders and businessmen are furious with the state government for insisting on payment of professional tax, questioning the rationale behind making the commercial taxes department send out bulk messages when GST was meant to usher in a single tax regime.

"Why should we pay professional tax and trade licence fees at the same time? The purpose of GST was to remove all other taxes. But that's not happening," said Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce & Industries (FJCCI) president Ranjeet Garodia, adding they were now planning to go to court.

He said they had met chief minister's secretary S.K. Barnwal recently to demand that the government either accept take trade licence fees or professional tax, but not both.

The state commercial taxes department's message to traders, that is being circulated for a week now, reads: "Dear Dealer, till date you have not taken registration under Jharkhand Professional Tax. Kindly visit eseva.jharkhandcomtax.gov.in and get yourself registered immediately. This is mandatory as per law. Regards, CTD..."

Traders and businessmen of Jamshedpur have also received similar messages. "We are ready to pay the tax but there is no clarity on who should pay P-tax," said Vijay Anand Moonka, the general secretary of Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI).

However, Dhanbad businessman had not received such messages, although they vowed to oppose any move to impose P-tax. President of Federation of Dhanbad Zilla Chamber of Commerce and Industry Rajesh Kumar Gupta said, "We will oppose P-tax tooth and nail. We are already paying trade licence charges to Dhanbad Municipal Corporation," he said.

Also, he said, no other tax could be imposed in the time of GST.

According to Praveen Lohia, who is chairman of FJCCI's administrative reforms committee, Jharkhand Professional Tax Act was introduced in 2011 but in 2012-13, after a protest, it wasn't implemented for the business community. "But now, we have started getting messages saying we too have to pay P-tax," he said.

In fact, Lohia, who is garment wholesaler, said the state government ought to return the P-tax collected from others.

"Professional tax was first challenged by me in 2013 on two grounds. First, I pointed out discrepancies in the act itself. In the Hindi version, the salary threshold of those who have to pay up was mentioned as Rs 15,000 or more per month. But the English version the figure was Rs 3 lakh and above per month," he explained, adding that discrepancies still remained in the gazette.

Secondly, Lohia pointed out, they were then told the government would use the money collected from P-tax for welfare of SC/STs. "But my RTI enquiry revealed that from 2007-12, the government spent only Rs 1,300 crore on SC/STs when the budget allocated was Rs 2,200 crore. I am sure the situation is the same now," he said, adding that they would soon hold a meeting on mounting a legal challenge.

But senior section officer in the state commercial taxes department Gagan Prasad said P-tax was a must for everyone. "Whoever is enrolled in GST has to pay professional tax too as Jharkhand Professional Tax is in sync with rules under GST," he said.

As for trade licence, he said it was a municipal corporation requirement. Also, the maximum professional tax worked out to Rs 2,500 for anyone earning Rs 10 lakh and above per annum.