HYDERABAD: Has the state government turned into a big defaulter of income tax? Yes, it owes a whopping Rs 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.
Under normal circumstances, the state government pays IT even if there is a delay by a couple of months by making book adjustments through the AG account. However, this time, the government could not pay. While PSUs like NMDC, SSCL, Andhra Bank, SBH and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd stood as top five IT payers, the state paid nothing to the IT department. Now, it has to pay a penalty. A senior IT official dubbed the state an IT defaulter. “The state government is not exempted from penalty on delayed tax payment,” he said.
The state government has deducted tax before making salary payments to employees, brokerage and under various other heads.