'Taxmen must adopt accounting standards'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, FEB. 10. In a pre-Budget memorandum to the Union Government, the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry has said that the tax authorities should adopt accounting standards for determination of income.

Speaking about the memorandum at a press conference here on Saturday, Mr. K. Ramaswamy, President, FKCCI, said the tax authorities had no standard approach to various accounting issues for the determination of income. Any accounting standard issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, which was "not in conflict with any accounting rule prescribed by the Income-Tax Act or any specific provision of the Act", should be adopted. The Central Board of Direct Taxes should support the application of accounting standards in the preparation and presentation of financial statements, for the standardisation of accounting principles, he added.

Touching upon a wide range of issues including business reorganisation, capital gains, corporate restructuring, tax on firms and income-tax, he said the FKCCI had not proposed any major changes. Emphasising the growing relationship between the industry and salaried persons, he said the latter, particularly those in the upper and lower middle class, were investing in personal computers and vehicles for personal use. Such purchase was largely facilitated through a number of finance schemes. Salaried persons should be given tax benefits on a par with businessmen and professionals who were enjoying tax concessions, he added.

The memorandum has made suggestions on how best tax benefits on purchase of computers and vehicles can be extended to salaried persons. It has also made recommendations pertaining to taxes on property, tax on the delayed remittance of employees' contribution to the Provident Fund and other schemes, and tax benefits to medical and educational institutions. It has said that a comprehensive Central Excise legislation should be evolved in a language understood by all.

Agitations planned

The FKCCI has warned that the Government's decision to increase the power tariff will lead to the closure of industries, unemployment and loss of revenue.

Mr. Ramaswamy, and Dr. Philip Lewis, President of the FKCCI's State-Level Joint Action Committee, told presspersons here that the committee had evolved programmes to protest against the decision. The FKCCI had appealed to the Government and the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission not to take a hasty decision on increasing the tariff, they added.

The increase in the power tariff would lead to the closure of small-scale industries, they said and added that the FKCCI had no alternative but to plan agitations in protest against the decision. The committee would hold a State-level consultative meeting in a couple of days. A symbolic procession of SSI units facing closure would be taken out on February 19. A 30-minute road blockade would be observed all over the State on February 26 (between 10.30 a.m. and 11 a.m.), the day on which both the Houses of the legislature were scheduled to be convened. If the Government failed to respond to the appeal to reconsider the decision on the power tariff, the duration of road blockade would be increased by one hour on each subsequent day, they added.

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