The Hindu

• In thelegislature Excise revenue has increased over the past two years 
• Estimated revenue in the current excise year is Rs. 4,060 crore
• Revenue from excise auctions up by 19 per cent
• No losses under VAT in past three months

Bangalore, Jul 4: Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has said that the Government has an open mind on banning the manufacture and sale of arrack in the State from the coming excise year, although it will be difficult to do the same with other varieties of liquor.

Replying to a question in the Legislative Assembly on Monday, Mr. Yediyurappa said the sale of arrack was banned for a day in Bangalore district last week when some vendors attempted to dictate terms to the Government. The vendors then approached the Government for a fresh round of auctions.

Owing to the Government taking certain stringent enforcement measures, excise revenue had substantially increased over the past two years. The bid for Bangalore district this year was 20 per cent lower than last year's, and the vendors exerted pressure on the Government to accept the same. But the Government was insistent that the bid had to be at least one per cent higher than last year's. Arrack auctions in most of the other districts had been completed and the revenue was 19 per cent more than last year's. He said revenue from excise had increased to Rs. 3,393 crore from Rs. 3,025 crore in 2005-06. In the current excise year the estimated revenue was Rs. 4,060 crore.

VAT regime

Replying to a question from M. Mahadev, the Deputy Chief Minister said the performance under the value added tax regime had improved over the past few months and there were no losses in the past three months. In the past year, the State had estimated a loss of around Rs. 2,500 crore, but this had been reduced to Rs. 1,272 crore following the good performance by the Commercial Taxes Department. The Centre had fully compensated for the loss.

Minister for Major and Medium Industries Katta Subramanya Naidu told A.S. Pattanashetty and S.S. Patil that he had discussed the question of establishing food parks in Bijapur district and elsewhere with Union Minister for Food Subodh Kant Sahay, who was in Bangalore recently. The Union Minister had said that the Centre was keen on establishing mega food parks, which the Government would consider.

He said the Government had invited bids for establishing food parks in Shimoga and Humnabad also.

Reorganisation of districts

Minister for Revenue Jagadish Shettar told Jayaprakash Hegde that there was a ban on reorganisation of districts and taluks until the delimitation of Lok Sabha and the Assembly constituencies was completed. The Government had an open mind on reorganising taluks.