From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Nov 12: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has asked the officials to step up the revenue mobilization drive to increase tax collection from the present 10.2% and directed them to intensify tax evasion and fraudulent registrations.
Addressing a meeting of the commercial tax department officials at his Home Office of Krishna in Bengaluru on Monday, he advised the officials to maintain strict vigil to monitor the goods transport and conduct stringent inspections.
Yediyurappa, who is also holding charge of the finance department, reviewed the performance of GST, KST and Professional Tax collections.
The Chief Minister noted that the commercial taxes department had mobilized Rs 42,823 crore out of the target of Rs 76,046 crore for the year 2019-20, which was about 56.3%. The department had to exert itself to mobilise over 40% of its target in the remaining five months.
Of the total tax collection of Rs 42,823 crore during the current year, GST alone accounted for Rs 33,060 crore.
The GST growth in the State was 12.2%, he noted.
The Chief Minister took note of the fact that the commercial taxes department officials had inspected 9,592 companies, which had not cleared their tax dues, and were able to collect Rs 464.3 crore.
The department had cancelled the registration of 74,598 companies, which had not paid correct taxes.
As much as Rs 833.07 crore taxes had been recovered following audit inspections of 1,08,315 cases. The inspection of 8,942 registrations of traders had revealed 463 fake registrations and nine persons had been arrested in these cases.
No. 2 rank in GST collections in country
The Chief Minister appreciated that Karnataka has got the second rank in the entire country in GST collections with the State’s average exceeding the national average. It is a matter of pride that the State’s contribution in GST collection was 9.55% in the national collection.
Even though Karnataka’s revenue collection was far better when compared with other States, the Chief Minister asked the officials to be more pro-active and vigorous in their revenue mobilization efforts.
He lauded the efforts of the officials in developing GST Pro software pertaining to tax collections and said the very fact that the Centre and other State governments have evinced interest in the software was proof of its success. Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh have already implemented the software in full, he said.
Karnataka was in the forefront in scrutiny and inspection of e-way bills and advised that it should be strengthened in the coming days.
State Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar, Finance Department’s Principal Secretary I S N Prasad, Chief Minister’s Additional Principal Secretary P Ravikumar and Advisor M Lakshminarayana, Secretary S Selvakumar and Additional Commissioner of Commercial Taxes Department Nitesh Patil and other senior officials participated in the meeting.