Men in green on the job, again!
There’s never a dull moment in Shillong with Team Jiva around. The men in green T-shirts are seen either cleaning the roads and drains or watering the flowers they have planted along GS Road in Police Bazar. This time, Jiva Hospitality has constructed planters by the side of the footpath in Police Point. On Saturday, Jiwat Vawani invited Additional Chief Secretary, DP Wahlang, the Director of Meghalaya Basin Development Authority, Aiban Swer, the Rangbah Shnong of Laitumkhrah, Andrew Jyrwa, the Seng Samla and other well-wishers to be present at the venue to plant flowering Bougainvillea shrubs brought all the way from a nursery in Jorhat.
Hardly were the flowers put inside the planters when a lady passer-by asked if she could take a cutting – just a small branch to grow at her home. Obviously she was not allowed to do that so she walked away looking downcast. It is to pre-empt such gardening enthusiasts from walking away with cuttings that Team Jiva have put up a netting around the newly planted flowers and shrubs.
Jiwat Vaswani has been getting calls from different areas of Shillong asking him to beautify their localities too. He says, “My answer is, if you want to beautify your locality then you should also invest in the process and not expect someone else to come and do it for free.” Now that the roundabout at Laitumkhrah is looking like fairyland with lights and a Christmas tree to boot, it can only be hoped that other localities and Dorbar Shnong, too, follow in the footsteps of Laitumkhrah Dorbar in beautifying their respective localities.
GST conundrum
A ‘calculative’ conundrum cropped up for the SJ team recently at a pay-and-use toilet in one of the most happening places in Shillong — Police Bazar.
This toilet facility was apparently charging GST for using the services. So, while earlier it was Rs 5 to use the urinal section, it was raised to Rs 6 “due to GST-TAX”.
Now the calculation here, if put right, can be interpreted as this: Let’s say the rate is Rs 5, and Re 1 is the GST charge; this implies that 20 per cent GST has been levied.
But interestingly, GST rate for various goods and services in India is divided into four slabs — 5% GST, 12% GST, 18% GST, & 28% GST.
Although it is a fact that these rates have been revised several times by the GST Council since the inception of the Goods and Services Tax, this instance here, nonetheless, maks you wonder whether the GST Council fit the aforementioned tax rate of 20 per cent pertaining to toilet use among over 1,300 goods and 500 services.