With an imperative to improve tax revenue collection and plug the loopholes in the system in the face of revenue deficit, Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu will hold a meeting with the Deputy Commissioners and Commercial Tax Officers to review division-wise revenue targets at Vijayawada on April 25.
It is an exercise to take stock of annual revenue collection after the bifurcation of the State and the strategies to be adopted for the financial year 2015-16 going by the last financial year’s performance, according to sources.
The meeting will also explore options for increasing non-tax revenue as there is no scope for enhancing the tax revenue from the mines and geology, forest sources. A suggestion to direct departments that are offering services like revenue, health, etc., to impose user charges to garner revenue will also be examined. The Accountant General is expected to reconcile the revenue accounts in a day of two and it should give a correct idea about the growth rate achieved by the State in the last 10 months as the revenues of April, May and June were in the combined State, they added. Amid reports that the sale of petroleum products which bring in considerable VAT revenue to the State has been decreasing as customers preferred purchasing diesel in the border districts of Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka where it is cheaper, the meeting would also examine the issue.
The dealers of petroleum products complained that the diesel sales declined in the State after the government enhanced VAT by Rs.4 per litre on the petrol and diesel while the government believed that it had no impact on overall tax revenue from the petroleum products . If there is indeed a significant drop in the sales of petroleum products after the upward revision of the petrol and diesel price, government may review the price. At present diesel is cheaper by over Rs.1 in the neighbouring States where the increase was as percentage of VAT rather than per litre, sources added.
