Kerala - State budget
will lay emphasis on welfare: Finance Minister
Finance Minister T.M.
Thomas Isaac said here on Monday that the State budget
for 2010-11, to be presented in February, would lay
emphasis on welfare and meeting the contingencies
arising from a spending spree that saw the government
sanctioning construction activities for Rs.5,000 crore
this year.
The Minister said the huge investment in construction
activities was the government’s response to a year hit by an all-round economic
recession, and the budget for next year would have a different character.
The Minister was speaking to reporters during an interactive session here on
Monday with traders and business houses and tax officials on complaints
regarding the working of check-posts and Intelligence squads.
Dr. Isaac spoke after a presentation was made on the new call centre facility
being introduced for business/ trade to register their complaints and get them
redressed quickly and satisfactorily.
On the tax collection front, the Minister said the Taxes Department suspected
substantial tax evasion activities through portrayal of inter-State purchases as
local purchases. The suspicion followed a sizeable increase in local purchases
that were not matched by sales figures. Checks would have to be carried out to
ascertain facts. The verification process would not cause inconvenience to
honest traders, he said.
The Taxes Department stood to benefit from the SMS gateway being established as
part of an initiative of e-governance.
Goods and Services Tax
One of the sessions on Monday included a discussion on the proposed Goods and
Services Tax. The Minister said that though the Centre and the State were not
one in their opinion on the proposals, Kerala welcomed GST and wanted it to be
implemented at the earliest.
Dr. Isaac said that GST would bring down the incidence of tax evasion, eliminate
the cascading effect and do away with about two dozens taxes now being imposed
at various stages and levels. GST was a destination-based tax and that was why
Kerala would benefit from it immensely. Besides, GST would make inter-State
trade easy and transparent. However, the crucial question remained as to who
would administer the new tax regime. Dr. Isaac said it would be best to let the
State administer the indirect taxes.
Reduction of stamp duty was one of the proposals in the GST but that entailed
the declaration of fair value of land, the Minister added.
