The empowered committee of state finance ministers has decided to form a committee which would suggest ?best practices? that the states can employ to increase revenue sources and prevent tax evasion. The committee is expected to submit its report in three months.
After the two-day meeting of the EC, its chairman Sushil Modi said, ?The committee would look at various models adopted by different states to increase revenue from various sources and submit its report.? The panel would be of the level of commissioners and it would consist of five to six members, he added.
Modi said that the commercial taxes department of all the states would be computerised by end of this year, a move that would help in doing away with tax evasion. This would ensure e-payments, e-registration and e-returns of taxes. According to Modi, more computerisation and less human interface would reduce tax evasion and corruption and augment tax resources. Currently, five states?Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat?have computerisation for most of the services in the commercial tax department.
Modi said that PAN would be made mandatory for registration of new dealers and it would also apply to existing traders.
?Computerisation and IT infrastructure will help when GST comes into place. The year 2012 would be marked as e-governance year,? the Bihar deputy chief minister and finance minister said. However, he refused to give a timeline for roll out of Goods and Services Tax (GST), adding that deadline of April 2012 would certainly be missed.
The computerization of state level would ultimately be merged to Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), which would be special purpose vehicle for GST IT infrastructure. In August last year, the EC gave its in-principle approval for creation of the portal GSTN. An SPV was decided to be set up based on the recommendations made by a group chaired by Nandan Nilekani.After the introduction of GST, the IT infrastructure will be a common portal for returns, registration, payments and for MIS (monthly income scheme). The indirect taxes like customs, service tax, excise and VAT will be using the same taxpayer identification.
