BENGALURU: Karnataka stands second in the country in the collection of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said on Monday. This year, the state collected Rs 61,245 crore from GST alone, a hike of 14.2 per cent over the previous year. With just a few weeks left for the close of the financial year, many government departments are yet to touch their targets, which might be worrisome for the Yediyurappa government.
As part of the budget preparations, Yediyurappa conducted a review meeting with various departments, including Commercial Tax, Excise, Transport, Stamps and Registration and other sectors which mobilise revenue in terms of taxes.
In order to make GST collection more effective, he directed officials to take action against the offenders. “Our officials have collected Rs 551.44 crore from the offenders so far. Starting from April 1, 2020, a new form of GST returns will come into force. Instructions have been given to officials to bring about awareness on this and popularise it,” he said.
On the commercial tax department, the CM said that of the target collection of Rs 76,046 crore by the end of financial year 2019-20, as of December 2019, they have collected Rs 55,984 crore, touching 74 per cent. The transport department’s tax collection target was Rs 7,100 but so far, Rs 4,864.80 crore has been collected, because of a fall in vehicle sales. “We are estimating a deficit of Rs 300 crore in this department by the end of March,” he said.
The excise department had a target collection of Rs 20,950 crore this year, of which Rs 16,188 crore was already collected. Compared to last year, the collection is Rs 1165.33 crore (or 7.76 per cent) more. It may be noted that the high collection has been done without increasing liquor prices. At present, 39 services of the Excise department have brought under Sakala, and 25 of them are online services. The Stamps and Registration department has collected Rs 8,297.65 crore -- a sum of Rs 410.75 crore more than the previous year. Yediyurappa instructed officials to make sure they give a push to tax collection in the next three months, before the financial year ends.