Apparently they're serious.
The great tax heist: Patil appeals to Prez DH News Service, Bangalore: Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council H K Patil has urged President Pratibha Patil to take the opinion of the Supreme Court on whether Artificially Created Light Energy (ACLE) can be considered as goods or not, so that tax can be levied on companies using this energy. Addressing reporters in Bangalore, he alleged that the corporate companies using ACLE for information transformation have evaded tax to the tune of Rs 1,20,000 crore to state governments. ACLE, according to Mr Patil, is one of the goods that attract tax. "These companies, therefore, should pay sales tax to the respective state governments. But none them is doing so," he argued. He said the President can take the apex court opinion on the issue under Article 143(1) of the Constitution and such an opinion will be binding on all states. Mr Patil, in his 313-page memorandum submitted to the President, has put forth his argument to prove ACLE as one of the goods. According to him, ACLE works on the lines of electricity, which comes under Karnataka Sales Tax Act. The only difference is that the latter works through electron, while the former works through proton. "Hence, ACLE has all the features to be considered one of the goods," he stated. IT companies transmit data or information that they develop for their customers using ACLE provided by Internet Service Provider (ISP). But neither ISP nor these companies has paid a single paise as tax for using ACLE so far. The State government, therefore, has incurred a loss of nearly Rs 8,000 crore, he stated. The Congress leader said that Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had during the last Assembly session assured to take appropriate steps to plug the leakage. What is ACLE? As the name implies, this energy is artificially created by an Optic Fibre Cable (OFC) network owner using electrical energy as input. ACLE is created by the Laser Device (LD) or Light Emitting Diode (LED) sources. While LD sources generate single frequency energy, LED sources generate frequencies in the range of 1,300 to 1,550 nm (nanometers). Such ACLE alone has the properties to carry the data or information from one place to another through OFC. http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Aug282007/scroll2007082821906.asp?section=updatenews
