The chief minister's immediate challenge is to keep his word of waiving crop loans of farmers up to ₹2 lakh at one go by Independence Day for which he needs every nickel that drops into the state exchequer.
Published Jul 12, 2024 | 10:10 AM ⚊ Updated Jul 12, 2024 | 10:10 AM
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy chairing a review meeting on Prohibition & Excise Registration, Mines & Geology departments at the Secretariat on Thursday. Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, ministers Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Jupalli Krishnarao, Chief Secretary Shanti Kumari, and senior officials of the respective departments attended the meeting. (A Revanth Reddy/X)
Hard pressed for funds for welfare schemes and other commitments, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has warned officials of revenue-generating departments against any lackadaisical attitude in collecting revenues.
At a four-hour-long meeting on Thursday, 11 July, he asked officials to set monthly targets and focus on meeting them.
The chief minister’s immediate challenge is to keep his word of waiving crop loans of farmers up to ₹2 lakh at one go by Independence Day for which he needs every nickel that drops into the state exchequer. The estimated outgo is about ₹31,000 crore for the waiver.
Though the chief minister is trying to raise funds for the waiver through other means such as raising loans and mortgaging government lands, any shortfall in mobilizing funds might force the state to dip into regular receipts.
The Opposition BRS has already been crying foul over loans and the land mortgaging move.
As air travel is a booming business now, the chief minister at a review of receipts into the state treasury, asked the officials to examine the possibility of jacking up tax on aviation fuel to compensate for the revenue loss.
Revanth Reddy also questioned the absence of an uptick in revenues despite the huge sale of liquor during the elections. He asserted that the sale of illicit liquor and non-duty paid liquor should be curbed to increase revenue from the liquor sales.
The chief minister ordered the officials to keep a strict vigil on the diversion of liquor from the distilleries by using advanced technology.
He suggested that measures should be taken to increase the revenue from registrations and stamp duty, saying the land and immovable property rates have already increased in the state.
To increase income from sand and mineral resources, the chief minister directed the officials concerned to stop illegal transportation and leakages. He asked them to conduct a study on whether collecting tax on electric vehicles after the limited period of the tax subsidy affected the sale of the vehicles.
He alerted the officials to be prepared for an upward revision of their targets for 2024-25 for which a full budget will be presented in the next Assembly session.
The chief minister warned the officials against laxity in taking measures to prevent tax evasion. Each department should draw out a monthly target plan by the annual target, and evaluate the progress achieved in the tax collection regularly.
He wanted the officials to maintain transparency and integrity in tax collection and revenue generation. The revenue-generating departments have also been given enough freedom to introduce reforms to increase receipts.
Revanth Reddy was not happy with the revenue generation during the first quarter of the financial year 2024-25. He instructed the officials to prepare monthly revenue targets and strive hard to achieve the annual revenue goals mentioned in the Vote-on-Account.
The chief minister said that he would review the achievements of fixed monthly revenue targets in the first week of every month.
Apart from the monthly review, Finance Minister Bhatti Vikramarka will also hold a meeting every Friday and review the progress in the achievement of targets by the departments concerned.
Revanth Reddy focused on the need for improving GST collections, the state’s main revenue resource. The state Commercial Taxes department officials were asked to conduct field visits for proper auditing to increase the GST revenue.
The officials should adopt transparency and maintain strict measures in the GST tax collections, he said.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
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