KOHIMA, June 25 – Proposing to widen the tax base to garner more revenue, Nagaland Finance Minister K Therie on Thursday presented a deficit budget for the financial year 2004-05 in the State Assembly but he did not make any fresh tax proposal. The budget envisages the revenue expenditure for the current fiscal at Rs 2386 crore and estimated expenditure at Rs 2412 crore.
Therie proposed to bring more items under the tax net to garner Rs.148 crore from internal sources by further rationalizing the rates and improving tax compliance. He announced that VAT would be introduced in the state from the next financial year as per the decision of the Empowered Committee of Finance Ministers on Value-added Tax.
The new items on which sales tax will be imposed within the year include cell phone, lottery ticket, coir products, artificial flowers, sunglasses, geyser and certain electronic equipment. As the rationalization of tax rates on certain items, particularly on petroleum products, brought more revenue to the coffers during the last financial year, the finance minister prooposed to further rationlize the tax regime to improve compliance and collection.