The Hindu : Front Page : Lucky VAT to have new form soon

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Friday, Jun 15, 2007
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Lucky VAT to have new form soon

Staff Reporter

Finance Minister says the second edition will be launched in August.

T.M. Thomas Isaac says the scheme failed to get people's support.

Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac on Thursday sought a people's campaign for the second edition of the Lucky VAT draw being launched in August.

Addressing newspersons after inspecting an adalat conducted by the Tax Department, Dr. Isaac admitted that the first edition of the Lucky VAT draw implemented a few months ago failed to get people's support.

The Minister said the lucky draw would re-emerge in a different style. Everyone who takes six tickets will get a prize. Special district-level draws will be conducted on festive occasions.

``The goal of the Lucky VAT is not to generate money, but to prompt the customer to ask for bills,'' Dr. Isaac said.

He said the style and attitude of officials monitoring the tax returns of traders would undergo a major change. ``Their attitude and body language need to be changed to get better response from the traders who pay tax,'' he said.

Dr. Isaac said that three-day camps would be conducted in August to train tax officials in auditing and scrutiny. He admitted that scrutiny of tax return statements was extremely difficult in the current system.

Online check-posts

As part of modernising the Tax Department, check-posts will be made online soon, he said, so that the Government can monitor with ease and confidence the veracity of tax returns.

He said traders' help would be sought to end the practice of tax evasion. The tax from gold this year was Rs.100 crore. The Government expects Rs.150 crore from gold returns.

When the current Government came to power, value-added tax (VAT) revenue was Rs.2,946 crore. It would be increased to Rs.6,000 crore in two years. It has already crossed Rs.4,500 crore.

The Minister said the Government planned to achieve the proposed increase in growth rate not through force or by hiking the tax rates, but by fostering cordial relations with the trading community of the State. Adalats are being conducted across the State to settle thousands of pending cases under the Kerala General Sales Tax (KGST) Act. Dr. Isaac said the officials would not be able to concentrate on VAT collection until KGST cases are settled. There were about one lakh sales tax cases pending in the State. He said all KGST cases would be settled through Adalats by September.

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