HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh is an income tax defaulter. It owes a `5,000 crore to the Income Tax department for the financial year 2011-12. As the government had failed to credit the tax amount, there is speculation that state coffers have run dry. Most of the tax amount is related to tax deducted at source (TDS) from employees’ salaries. The government should also deduct TDS of one or two per cent on the value of various civil works like construction of drains, canals etc. The TDS amount must be deposited with the IT department.
Asked for his comment on the state government defaulting in IT payment, Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy told The Sunday Standard: “Such matters will not come to me. I am not aware of it.”
The situation was no different in municipalities and civic corporations which were starved of funds. Another interesting thing is that the APIIC, which was earning money for the government by selling valuable lands, was not paying any tax as the IT department considers it a charity organisation.