The Hindu : Karnataka News : Accept commissions' advice: Moily

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 26, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Accept commissions' advice: Moily

By Our Special Correspondent

GULBARGA, NOV. 25. M. Veerappa Moily, former Chairman of the Taxation and Revenue Reforms Commissions, said today that the State's finances would be on a firm footing once all the recommendations of the two commissions were implemented.

Addressing a press conference here, he said that some of the recommendations of the commissions had been implemented and this had increased the revenue through taxes. If the other recommendations were also implemented, the State would not face any funds crunch and would be able to prevent tax evasion.

Mr. Moily said the recommendations of the Taxation Commission on Value Added Tax (VAT) had been praised by the Union Government. The model proposed by the commission had been adopted by the Centre for implementation all over the country, he added.

He said the State Government had implemented 40 per cent of the recommendations for the Stamps and Registration Department, 50 per cent of those for the Excise Department and 40 per cent of those for the Transport Department. The implementation of the recommendations in the departments had helped increase revenue, he said.

Mr. Moily said that if the tax rates were reduced, the collection of taxes would increase and corruption would come down. The decision to do away with stamp papers and introduce paper-less registration was taken on the basis of the commission's recommendations, he claimed. For the first time in the country, Karnataka had introduced paperless registration procedures, he added.

KPCC post

To the question whether he was an aspirant to the post of president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), Mr. Moily only said he was a loyal Congressmen and would accept any post given to him.

He declined to comment on the statements of the KPCC president, B. Janardhana Poojary, and their effect on the coalition government. He said the actions and statements of all Congress leaders should be in tune with the policies and principles of the party.

"Mr. Poojary is the team leader, he cannot play for himself and (also) play for the team,'' he remarked.

Mr. Moily praised the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh's style of functioning and said the coalition experiment was new to the Congress in the State.

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