Tax Commission recommends VAT for state

raichur: the chairman of tax reforms commission and former chief minister of karnataka m. veerappa moily on sunday said, the commission's first report had already been submitted to the karnataka government. "the second and final report is almost complete", he told reporters. "a few suggestions and opinions regarding plugging loopholes in the excise act need to be incorporated.the report will be submitted in the first week of october. the commission is also awaiting a member who has gone to australia on a visit", moily added. moily said, the commission had recommonded amendments in acts like the karnataka excise act, the karnataka sales-tax act which will come into effect from april 1, 2002. the commission has also recommonded the implementation of vat (value added tax) in karanataka. this he said, would help in the improvement of the state's financial position and prevent 40 per cent leakage in tax revenues. "there will be no scope for corruption and bargain in tax among tax payers in karnataka", he said. moily said, vat must be incorporated in all central acts so that the economy improves. moily was here to participate in a literary seminar on `ramayana mahaanveshanam' written by him. the seminar was organised by the karnataka karavali samskrutika sangha, zilla kannada sahitya parishad and raga lalita prakashana. prof m.h. krishnayya of bangalore university lit the lamp. writers parameshwar, dr h t pote, sheeladas and pralhadachar joshi delivered lectures. local mla syed yasin, the chairman of the hyderabad karnataka development board and manvi mla n.s. bhosraj, the chairman of urban development authority a. vasanth kumar and former president of the raichur city municipal council m. earanna were also present. no scope for release of water: later, moily told reporters, the karnataka government is willing to spend any amount to tackle drought in the state. "the district aministration has rs 1.7 crore and funds will be allocated for relief works", he added. "without any help from the centre, relief works in the district will be speeded up, he said. he also criticised the center for not releasing sufficient funds to tackle drought in the district. on the release of cauvery water to tamil nadu, moily said, there is no water in hemavati river at sakaleshpur, hassan. he added, when karnataka itself was facing water shortage, how could it release water to tamil nadu. the drought in karnataka is worse that what it was in 1975, moily said.