The Congress government in Telangana now has the daunting task of funding the party's big-ticket welfare schemes.
Telangana CM Revanth Reddy. (Supplied)
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday, 16 May, turned his attention to augmenting the state’s revenue by plugging leakages and improving the efficiency of the revenue-generating departments — mainly commercial taxes, stamps and registrations, excise, and mining.
The state government has the daunting task of funding big-ticket welfare schemes like Rythu Bharosa, reimbursement to TSRTC for providing free rides to women, and providing ₹500 as a bonus for each quintal of paddy procured from farmers.
The chief minster asked the officials to pull up the stocks and take measures to get the cash registers ringing.
Revanth asked the officials to have a better coordination among the revenue generation departments. “Ensure that there is no scope for corruption as it would lead to a evasion taxes,” he said.
He also made it clear that stringent action should be taken against those who evade payment of taxes to the state government.
He said that the departments should work keeping in view the targets that the government had fixed in the budget in realising the state’s own resources.
He underscored the need for having a fool-proof plan for effective collection of taxes. In areas where there was a need for toning up tax collection machinery, measures should be taken up immediately.
The bottom line is that there should not be any hemorrhage of funds because of inefficiency or corruption, the chief minister said.
Revanth Reddy expressed dissatisfaction over poor tax collection in the last financial year (2022-23) and wanted the officials to take steps to improve it in such away that the state would meet its fiscal targets.
He asked them to reviewed the performance their departments to see whether the required pace was being maintained in the collection of taxes.
“There should be monthly targets for each department so that at the end of hte year, the state would reach its annual targets easily,” he said.
He paid special attention on the collection of GST, which is the main source of income to the state’s exchequer. He said there had to be field inspections and auditing to improve GST collection.
No matter what the status of a person is , the officials should not hesitate to take action if one is found to be evading the payment of GST, he said.
The officials have to ensure that there would be no scope for any laxity in collection of taxes, he added.
They should make sure that there were no irregularities in collection of GST in the name of GST returns, he said.
The chief minister asked the officials why collection of excise duty was not commensurate with the sale of liquor in the last financial year.
He asked the officials to implement a fool proof plan to improve the collection of the duty. He said he would not allow illegal transport of liquor across the borders.
Reviewing collection of revenue through registration of properties, he wondered why they were not at the desired levels though the value of lands and that of the immovable properties had gone up.
The revenue through the sale of stamps had also dwindled, he pointed out while discussing the yawning gap between the market value of the lands and receipt of poor revenues.
He recalled the previous government jacking up the market value of the lands and registration fee in 2021 and yet the revenue was not on expected lines.
He sked the officials to revise the market value of land as, according to rules, it has be done every year.
The officials should pay attention to the areas where the land value has to be revised and how much in which areas. They should also revise value of the immovable properties like agriculture land, open plots, apartments and so on.
The revision of the value of the land should be in such away that it would give fillip to the construction and real estate sectors.
The chief minister also wanted that there should not be any dearth of staff in the sub-registrar offices.
He noted that in several places the offices were running in rented properties and that those who go for registration of their properties were standing under the shade of trees nearby.
He asked the officials to build model registration offices in areas marked for public utility purpose.
Revanth Reddy left instructions to the officials to make sure that there would be no dearth in supply of sand for common man and for small constructions. If the revenue on sand has to increase, the officials have to arrest its illegal transport, he said.
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