Hinting at tax reforms during the next fiscal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today assured the industry of better tax administration.Responding to demands of FICCI president Onkar S Kanwar to address the high direct tax burden on corporate India, and the need for raising the level of 30% income tax to above Rs 5 lakh, Singh said: "I promise to address these concerns over the next year."Singh, who was speaking at the 78th annual general meeting of FICCI, said he would work towards generating a consensus on labour reforms.Singh said the government was committed to "unleash a new surge of investments" by encouraging enterprise and creativity through reforming the public sector and enabling private and public partnerships."If it requires modifications to our labour policies to provide greater flexibility, which in turn will generate more jobs, we will work with all stake holders to generate a consensus," he said.Singh said there was also a need to pay atention to social safety nets because it was incumbent on the state to take care of the weak and vulnerable who cannot bear the shocks of the market economy."Social welfare legislation must go hand in hand with labour market flexibility. This will help increase employment opportunities while taking care of employees' concerns," Singh said.On concerns about the tax laws and tax system, Singh said the economy had moved towards lower tariffs, uniform tax rates and easier procedures.He told the industrialists that the government would work towards improving the tax administration "so that your interface with the tax system is pleasent, smooth, problem-free and conducive to easy compliance."On the implementation of value added tax (VAT), Singh said he was happy that many states, which initially kept out of VAT, had opted to join the system. He added that revenues have been buoyant, setting at rest worries about its feasibility."Based on this experience, we need to move towards greater rationaliation of VAT and Cenvat rates, and most importantly, towards a common goods and service tax," he added."This would enable India to become a genuine common market - a dream of our founding fathers. I hope to see this happen in next three to four years - an event which will be a landmark in our economic development," Singh said.
