Finance Minister K.M. Mani has said that the State government will soon come out with a solution to the trading community’s demand to process all their tax returns applications within a two-year term.
The Minister made the promise here on Friday when the leaders of merchant organisations approached him with the complaint that a majority of the applications submitted for tax returns by traders were currently processed by the Income Tax Department in four or five years.
Mr. Mani, while attending a pre-budget discussion at the Collectorate to finalise the development priorities of the district, said the traders’ plea to unify the Value Added Tax (VAT) rates was also under the consideration of the government. “An empowered committee has been constituted to look into the subject,” he said.
Mr. Mani explained the government plan to strengthen checking at all commercial check-posts. He said steps had been taken to install scanners on an experimental basis at the Walayar check-post. As part of the modernisation process, installation of weighing machines too would be considered after checking the availability of land, he said.
The Finance Minister spoke about the government plan to set up checking kiosks in Kozhikode, Palakkad, and Thiruvananthapuram districts for better monitoring of goods movement. An empowered committee would look into the details as per a government order, he said.
The government was well aware of the illegal transportation of goods by train to evade tax, the Minister said.
The pre-budget discussion was attended by people’s representatives and heads of government departments. The Minister received complaints and suggestions from the leaders of various organisations for consideration in the next Budget.