Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi held a video conference with officials of Mahe and Yanam for shoring up GST collections across the U.T. regions.
An action plan on achieving GST targets was put in place on the basis of recommendations submitted by the Finance Secretary recently.
Ms. Bedi has scheduled a meeting to take stock of progress in mid-December.
During the meeting with officials in Mahe, Ms. Bedi sought the cooperation of market associations. “Teams comprising officers are being constituted to track compliance,” she said.
She wanted officials to form groups in partnership with market associations and go shop to shop to see if the eligible shopkeepers had filed their returns. This measure by itself would increase the returns, she said.
The Lt. Governor had asked Social Welfare Department personnel and local police to work with NGOs and youth to engage the community members in city development as well as to conduct “shramadaan” on Saturday mornings.
L-G’s visit
The Lieutenant Governor was due to revisit Mahe in January.
Addressing officials in Yanam, she urged them to uphold the law and go by the rule book to avoid punitive action when irregularities were brought to light during audits, enquiries or RTI pleas sooner or later.
“The only assured protection for any serving public official is to follow the law and rules scrupulously without any fear or favour,” Ms. Bedi told officials as they were accountable only to law.
