The finance minister, however, added that if a review necessitated raising additional resource, such measures could be considered later. "If this two-day conference after analysing the situation felt that the additional expenditure will not be met by the revenue target set by the government, then we can think of some sort of a tax measure later," he said.

The finance minister said that mounting fiscal deficit continued to be the most intractable problem of the economy. Sinha dismissed reports of plans to impose a war tax or cess to meet the expenditure incurred in Kargil operation as media speculation. "As long as it is a speculation, I don't want to say anything. It should not come from me," Sinha told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

Asked whether he confirmed or denied reports that the government wasplanning a mid-term fiscal correction, including imposition of fresh tax to meet the additional expenditure of `Operation Vijay' to flush out Pakistani intruders, the Finance minister said, "there is a time for everything. I'm saying nothing at the moment. Anything I say will be misinterpreted".

Addressing the conference, Sinha suggested CBEC should tighten its belts on all fronts. He pointed out that though the process of rationalisation and simplification has been initiated from last year, revenue collection will improve desirably if this is done on a sustainable basis.

He said that introduction of `Saral' form for collecting income tax was a tremendous success as 60 per cent to 90 per cent of assessees have used the form to file their returns this year and the number of returns filed has grown substantially.

Sinha said that there was need to introduce the single national VAT for indirect taxes and simplification of procedures. He asked the CBEC to evolve a `Saral' form for collecting customs andcentral excise. "Once we simplify the procedures, it will be easier for us to computerise the whole system," said Sinha.

Divestment to begin in Oct

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Yashwant Sinha has said that the public sector disinvestment will begin in October and the government was confident of meeting the Rs 10,000 crore target set for the current financial year.

Sinha told reporters that the procedure has been set in motion as the government has already taken important decisions regarding disinvestment. But the actual disinvestment even in terms of normal timeframe can come only in October. When asked if the decision had something to do with the election, Sinha said "It is not because of elections. It is because procedures take time. It is only in October when disinvestment season starts".

It may be noted that the Cabinet has already approved this year's disinvestment programme which included divestment of government equity in MTNL, IOC, VSNL, Hindustan Zinc, Madras Fertiliser and ITDC. Thefinance minister said "We have eight months ahead of us to achieve the target and I don't thin anyone should entertain any doubts. I am not doubtful about our capacity to meet disinvestment target".