The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) is of the view that there should be uniform tax structure in all the North Eastern States to avoid tax evasion in Assam.

Addressing a press conference in Guwahati recently, APCC spokesman and convenor of the economic affairs committee of the State Congress Pradyut Bordoloi said that the State Government should immediately hold discussions with the Governments of the neighbouring States in this regard.

It may be mentioned here that Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta also advocated the need for uniform tax structure for the NE States.

Mr. Bordoloi said that the financial crunch is the biggest problem facing the State at this moment. He said that the APCC would welcome viable fiscal reforms, but at the same time, party would register strong protest if the State Government decides to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Central Government to curb the independence of the State Government and freezes employment in the Government sector.

The APCC is of the view that the inefficiency of the State Government is primarily responsible for the present crisis and said that the Government must find ways and means to tide over the crisis. The APCC also said that the Central Government also must come forward for salvaging the State from the current crisis.

The APCC offered some suggestions to the State Government to strengthen the economic base of the State and said that the Government should form an expert committee to study the current financial position and to suggest measures to overcome the crisis. The State Government should be prepared to take short term and long term measures to improve the financial position of the State as per the recommendations of an expert committee, Mr. Bordoloi said.

Mr. Bordoloi said that the Central Government must reimburse all the security related expenditures of the State Government as was done in the case of Punjab and all leakages in tax collection measures should be plugged immediately to improve tax collection. The APCC has also advocated the need for the introduction of Assam Entry Tax Bill to expand the tax base.

On the tax received by the State Government from the tea industry, the APCC says that the State Government is losing revenue for stock transfer of about 65 per cent of the tea produced in the State. Mr. Bordoloi said that to prevent the loss of revenue for stock transfer of tea, the State Government could impose tax at the production base on the green leaf brought to the factories. As the State produces about 460 million kgs of tea per year, the State Government could earn an amount of Rs 500 crore by imposing tax on green leaf brought to the factories, he added. He also demanded that the State Government should increase the land revenue in tea cultivable land to Rs 18 per bigha of land in the Brahmaputra valley and Rs 14 in the Barak Valley.

The State Government has recently decided to increase the land revenue rate of Rs 12 per bigha in the Brahmaputra valley and Rs 9 in the Barak Valley.

Mr. Bordoloi also alleged that in 1998, the State Government reduced the agriculture income tax from 75 per cent to 45 per cent and the tea cess from 50 paisa per kg to 32 paisa per kg. The APCC also demanded shifting of the head offices of the big tea companies to Assam.

Mr. Bordoloi said that there were 23000 small tea growers in the State and they covered an area of 2.60 lakh bigha of land in 17 districts. He said that about 50 per cent of the small growers were occupying Government land and by giving land settlement to the small tea growers, the Government could earn an additional amount of Rs 80 crore as land revenue. He also alleged that instead of giving settlement to the small gardens, the State Government had been giving land settlement to big industrialists. Giving two such examples, he said that the State Government had given settlement of 500 bigha of land to one DP Lohia in Tirap Block and 374 bigha to one Kripal Singh in Lahowal, which even forced the Small Tea Growers' Association to allege that the Ministers need money to give settlement.