The meeting commenced with silent prayer under the Presidentship of Mr.Sudhir Menon, President of Keta. In his Welcome speech Mr.Sudhir Menon welcomed Mr. P.U. Jose, Chairman of Joint Action Council of Chamber of Commerce and Trades Organisations of Kerala & President of ACCT, who was invited to present his views on VAT rules and other respected members. Keta President opined that state Government was going to implement the VAT without considering the grievances of traders. He further informed that Keta had submitted representations to the Finance Minister and Commissioner of Commercial Taxes,Thiruvananthapuram to rectify the defects in the VAT rules. Mr.E.V.George and Tax Advisory Committee Convener Mr.K.C.Thomas had met the Minister and other financial officers and expressed Keta’s views on this subject, but Government had not fully considered the request.
Mr.E.V. George, in his speech informed that as Keta’s and Joint Action Council representative, he had met the Finance Minister and Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and submitted representations. The Government has considered a few demands but still harmful clauses existed in the proposed VAT rules. VAT resulted in lot of paper work for traders. Computerization is inevitable to run the business under VAT rules. He opined that traders have joined together to fight against the discriminative policy of the state Government. He further said that Mr.P.U.Jose knew very well about each and every clause in the VAT rules, and he would present the merits and demerits of these rules and it would remove the doubts of members.

Mr.P.U.Jose, in his address explained the harmful clauses contained in the VAT rules. He also explained the work already done for amending a few clauses of the VAT rules. He has informed the members that computerization of account is a must under VAT. Manual accounting under VAT is very complicated and lengthy one, with the bills to be maintained by the trader showing every minute detail of purchases and sales. He further informed that in order to avail the input tax credit, the traders had to maintain and submit the details of purchases and sales to VAT office. Traders are forced to spend more time to prepare documents of sales and purchase rather than doing business. He opined that Government would implement the VAT from Ist April 2005, hence it would be better to make a strong platform of various traders organization to force the Government
to amend the VAT rules rather than preventing the implementation.

Many members sought clarifications and Mr.E.V.George and Mr.P.U.Jose gave reply to them. Mr.K.J.Baby, M/s E.V.Electricals, Kumbanad, Mr.Jacob Mathew, M/s Electro Trading Corporation, Ernakulam Mr.P.M. Joseph, Secretary, Keta Kottayam Unit and Mr.Kurian Joseph, President of Keta Kottayam Unit sought clarifications on VAT rules.

The floor witnessed a thorough discussion on various rules of VAT and its merits and demerits. Keta President Mr.Sudhir Menon presented a memento to Mr.P.U.Jose for his valuable presence and address in the meeting. Keta Secretary Mr.R.Mohan Prasad, expressed thanks to Mr.P.U.Jose for his enlightened speech and other respected members who were present in the meeting. After the vote of thanks by the Keta Secretary, the meeting concluded at 6.30 P.M..

The meeting commenced with silent prayer at 6.10 p.m. under the Presidentship of Mr. E.V. George. In his welcome speech the President welcomed the Honorable Minister for Finance, Shri. K. Sankaranarayanan, Director of Income Tax (Investigation) Mr. L. Kuriakose I.R.S, Chartered Accountant Mr. Venugopal C. Govind, Auditor Mr. R. Krishana Iyer, President of ACCT Mr. P.U. Jose and KETA Secretary Mr. Jacob Mathew and all other members and guests. Mr. E.V. George pointed out that the recently introduced new taxes like the Additional Sales Tax of 15% and Turnover Tax of 1.5% in the budget are against the interest of the traders who are reeling under severe financial crisis. He requested the Hon’ble Finance Minister to look into the matter and redress the grievances of the traders before matters became worse. He also urged the Minister to take administrative steps to reduce the burden of the traders by simplifying the tax rules.

The Hon’ble Finance Minister of Kerala, Shri. K. Sankaranarayanan in his informative speech informed the audience that 49% of the government income was derived from Sales Tax. The newly presented budget was introduced after studying the budgets of various states in India. The Minister admitted that the due to the precarious financial position of the state, the government was forced to find ways and means to run the state and this was why AST & TOT were imposed. However in the light of heavy protest from the trades association, the government was once again studying these proposals. The Minister wanted to know that whenever a new tax or increase in rate of tax was imposed if everybody protested how the government could collect revenue to meet its increasing expenses. He further informed the august audience that the government owed Rs.800 Crores to Contractors, Rs.204 Crores to Plus 2 teachers and Rs.100 Crores for the mid-day meals scheme in schools. The Minister invited opinion from various trade associations regarding “Value Added Tax “ (VAT) to be introduced from April 2002 and requested them to join together for discussion on this subject for better mutual understanding.

The Minister opined that the book compiled b y Auditor Mr. R. Krishna Iyer “Hand Book on Tax Deducted at Source “ was a valuable and in formative one and congratulated him on taking so much pain to write this book. He also requested KETA, the publisher of the book to print more copies of the hand books for public awareness regarding the latest amendments in this field.

The Minister then declared the book officially released by handing over a copy to the Director of Income Tax (Investigation) Mr.L.Kuriakose I.R.S.

The Director of Income Tax (Investigation) Mr. L. Kuriakose I.R.S appreciated Mr. R. Krishna Iyer on writing a book on TDS and expressed his gratitude to KETA for coming taken the responsibility of publishing this informative book. He opined that this book would definitely simplify the contents of Income tax laws. He requested everybody to pay their Income Tax properly, which in turn would help the development of Kerala State.

Eminent Chartered Accountant Mr. Venugopal C. Govind felicitated Mr. R. Krishna Iyer on writing a book on TDS which is considered to be the most complicated subject in Income tax laws. He said that the book was very informative and it could help the common man to understand this laws in a simple way. He also mentioned that he author of this book was considered to be an authority on Sales Tax matters and commended KETA for having published this valuable book. Mr. Venugopal C. Govind also frankly opined that imposition of Turnover Tax on the traders was gross injustice to them. He further clarified his point by saying that sales tax is collected by the traders from the public and paid to the government. While Turnover Tax is something which they have to pay from their pocket and eats away into their profit. This can be considered as Income Tax and not Sales tax. He requested the Minister to study the subject and take a discussion which would be favorable to the traders.

Mr. P.U. Jose, President of ACCT is his speech pointed out that the traders were in a financial crisis due to the implementation of AST & TOT at a time of decreasing business and overall stagnancy. This would restrict the movement of goods considerably. He requested the Minister to withdraw the unscientific tax proposals introduced by the government. Failing which the trading community would be forced to resort to agitation against this callous attitude of the Government.

Mr. R. Krishna Iyer in his reply expressed gratitude to the Minister for having found time rom his busy schedule to come and release his book. He also thanked KETA for coming forward to publish the book and organizing the launching function at the KETA hall. He also thanked Mr. L. Kuriakose, Mr. Vengugopal C. Govind and others present on the occasion.

Mr. Jacob Mathew, KETA Secretary then proposed vote of thanks. He thanked the Minister for his generosity to come and attend this function inspite of his official duties. He also thanks Mr. L. Kuriakose, Mr.Venugopal C. Govind and Mr. P.U. Jose for attending the function and their felicitations. He also thanked the press people and the electronic media for their co-operation. Which was essential for the success of the function. He also thanked Mr. R. Krishna Iyer for giving KETA an opportunity to publish is book. He then thanked all the members of KETA and other invitees who had participated to make the occasion a memorable one.