According to a senior finance ministry official, these three were the main issues concerning revenue enhancement in general and direct taxes in particular to be solved without any delay.

He said that e-commerce taxation had emerged as one of the areas which had a lot of technicalities involved with it and the government needed to formulate a clear-cut policy on the issue. The official said that the high-powered technical committee set up by the government was studying the various aspects of e-commerce taxation and it was expected to submit its report in coming months so that the necessary changes can be accommodated in the Finance Bill for 2001-2002.

He said that the committee on e-commerce would give its views on the possibility of taxing e-commerce and possible methods to be adopted for the same.

Interestingly, e-commerce taxation has puzzled governments across the globe and no comprehensive method has been devised to tax the business through internet till date despite a manifold rise in trading and services through this mode.

Ministry sources said that the high-powered technical committee on e-commerce which had five members from the revenue department and two each from the information technology (IT) industry and accountancy profession, was studying the experiences of various countries in the field to reach to a fruitful conclusion.

On introduction of agricultural taxation, the official said that the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) had already submitted its interim report on the issue to the government. He added that the government had now asked NIPFP to chart out a roadmap for introducing farm taxation in the country.

The official said that, though introduction of agricultural taxation was a politically sensitive matter, the government was trying to evolve a method in which it can be introduced in a phased manner.

The NIPFP report in this regard was expected to throw light on the possible solutions on which a political consensus could be reached, he said.

Experts believe that it will be difficult for the government to introduce agricultural taxation across the board in one go and at the best it can tax farm income from cash crops in the beginning.

Revenue department sources said that one of the recommendations of the NIPFP in its interim report that one-by-six scheme should be made uniformly applicable throughout the country so that data could be collected on the income from agriculture could not be introduced in the current budget due to infrastructure problems.

However, the government was intending to extend the scheme for including as many centres as possible in the next budget, they said.

The finance ministry is also in the process of finalising the transfer pricing norms. The expert committee set up to look into the matter has gathered opinions from various quarters and it will give its report to the ministry soon, said the official.

He said that in all probability transfer pricing norms will be introduced in the budget for 2001-2002.