Tax panel to look into non-tax revenue

bangalore: the karnataka government has given the tax reforms commission an extension of six months and asked it to look into the issue of non-tax revenue, an area which wasn't part of its original brief. trc chairman m. veerappa moily said the second and final report will be presented on october 19 to chief minister krishna. ``with this, the trc would have dealt with major and minor taxes.we will focus on non-tax revenue henceforth.'' the trc was set up last year for recommending measures to evolve a simple, transparent, broad-based and efficient tax system. it submitted the first report at the end of february ahead of the state budget with focus on reforming the sales tax structure. ``the second report will concentrate on some burning issues related to value added tax (vat), scheduled to be implemented from april 2002. among the recommendations is the necessity for dual vat,'' he said. the trc is expected to recommend specific revenue neutral rates (rnr), three slabs of 4 per cent, 8 and 12 per cent for commodities, with special rates for gold, silver and precious stones, as well as separate higher rate for petroleum products. ``with the second report, the entire vat picture is complete. we have put together everything we thought is required for implementation of the new system and approached it systematically,'' he stated. another important component of the second report will be a section on e-governance. though the first report touched on the subject, it is understood that the second one will lay down the command and control structure for e-governance such that ultimate accountability rests with the chief minister's office. ``recommendation on agricultural income tax, which hadn't been touched in the first report, is another important section. in addition, certain recommendations on excise, entertainment tax, motor vehicles tax and stamps and registration, left out in the first, will be covered in this report,'' moily added.