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Disinvestment programme to begin in October: Sinha

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today said the government would begin its disinvestment programme from October.

Talking to newspersons in New Delhi, Sinha said the revenue target for the disinvestment programme would be reached for the year 1999-2000. The government has already announced its disinvestment programme for this fiscal, including for Mahanagar Telephone and Hindustan Zinc Limited. ''We are confident that the target will be met as we have eight months ahead of us'', Sinha said.

Sinha said he had met President K R Narayanan to discuss the economic situation with him. Reports, however, said he had met him to take his approval for additional taxes. Later, Sinha told correspondents in a lighter vein that his meeting with the President was perhaps a mistake (for the hype it generated). The finance minister said while till last Year, the engine of revenue collection had been the Central Board of Direct Taxes, this year the lead was being taken by the Central Board for Excise and Customs. He asked the CBDT to gear up to meet the challenges ahead.

The minister said the revenue department should be absolutely unsparing in dealing with ''evaders and avoiders'', but it should deal with utmost courtesy when handling the honest tax-payer. He said there was no reason to suspect everyone, which was the difference between the colonial mindset and the developmental mindset. In the latter, an officer deals sternly with defaulters only while in the regulatory approach, a tax officer assumes everyone is a defaulter.

Sinha said the law of diminishing courtesy operates in the revenue department. ''If there is a problem and he meets the chief commissioner, then, he was likely to be dealt with courteously.'' If he goes below the order, he was not sure such nice treatment would be meted out to him. This should give way to the law of increasing courtesy, Sinha said.

The minister said Saral must increasingly be applied to excise and customs as well. The finance minister said simplification of procedures would facilitate computerisation. He said there had been an increase of 60 to 70 per cent assessees where simplification had been introduced. He said people were willing to pay taxes but do not like cumbersome procedures.

Sinha said he had been regularly meeting Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde to discuss the problems of exporters. Sinha said simplification was required in export procedures as well, to make the life of exporters comfortable.

UNI

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