The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Revenues to go up: Isaac

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Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008
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Revenues to go up: Isaac

Special Correspondent

e-filing of tax returns from January

T.M. Thomas Isaac

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has exuded confidence that State revenues will not fall below last year’s levels despite a drop in revenue from stamp duty and vehicle registration.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, the Minister said the government had been successful in plugging leakage and so the revenues would actually go up. e-filing of value-added tax returns would be introduced from January next year to further improve tax collection.

Dr. Isaac said the revenue from registration of land deeds and stamp duty had come down by 1.35 per cent in October compared to the corresponding period last year. There was also a dip in the sales of vehicles and the revenue from motor vehicle tax. There would also be a drop in the State’s share of Central taxes with revenues from excise duty showing a decline of 8 per cent. The economic slowdown was affecting the State.

However, a slew of scientific measures by the government had resulted in collection of higher revenues. This month, a 30 per cent increase in tax collection over that of November 2007 was expected. The collection this month was Rs.861 crore till Monday against Rs.726 crore during the corresponding period last year. Besides, treasury savings deposits had gone up following a hike in interest rates.

He said that e-filing of returns would enable creation of an extensive database that could be used to check tax evasions.

Traders had pointed out some practical difficulties. These would be addressed before the system was introduced in January.

The Minister said the government had been able to clear arrears payable to contractors for the first time in 15 years. Cheques for payments up to September 2008 were ready for signing. A sum of Rs.720 crore had been released for making the payments. Traders had complained that commercial banks had stopped trade loans to maintain liquidity. That was unfortunate as it would accentuate recession. The government would take up the matter with the State-level bankers’ committee.

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