HYDERABAD: Commercial Taxes Minister Konathala Ramakrishna has asked officers of his department to introduce e-filing of Value Added Tax (VAT) returns and dispense with weigh bills for movement of goods from this year.

Inaugurating a two-day conference of Deputy Commissioners of Commercial Taxes here on Thursday, Mr. Ramakrishna stressed the importance of e-filing to reduce the interaction between taxpayers and the department and a strong invoice billing mechanism to replace the weigh bills which were found to have wide variations of 50 to 100 per cent from the actuals. He sought a foolproof e-filing system without breakdowns in connectivity. The Minister also asked officers to explore the possibility of setting up an Enforcement Directorate and decentralising the process of registering VAT dealers.

He ruled out any major change in the tax rates of VAT items, 225 of which had recently been reduced from 12.5 to 4 per cent. If need be, the Government would review the rates in the second quarter of the current financial year.

Thanking the officers for smooth transition of the State from the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax (APGST) to VAT regime last year, he said the Government was, in fact, worried about the sharp drop in the revenue at the end of the first two quarters of the year. However, the administration shored up the resources and helped the State reach a position where it did not require to be compensated by the Centre by the end of the fourth quarter.

Good beginning

Mr. Ramakrishna also said the State had already made a good beginning in the current financial year, registering a 44.99 per cent growth rate in collections. The department had earned Rs. 2,106.41 crores in two months as against the target of Rs.15,465.32 crores for the whole year. This was in spite of tax rates for cooking gas and industrial raw material being brought down from 12.5 to 4 per cent in the last few days. Tax on hardware material would also be brought down to same level soon.

S.V. Prasad, Principal Secretary, Revenue, said there was a negative growth rate of up to 16 per cent in three districts. Commercial Taxes Commissioner T.S. Appa Rao spoke.

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