E-Paper
3% jump in Himachal’s revenue collection despite pandemic: Jai Ram
There was a 44% increase in revenue collection in March with the state receiving ₹1,006 crore against last year’s ₹699 crore
Himachal chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday said that the hill-state had registered a 3% increase in revenue collection in the 2020-21 financial year despite the pandemic affecting economic activities.
“The excise and taxation department had registered a 52% decrease in revenue collection in the first quarter. However, once the disruption caused by the virus in the initial months of the outbreak subsided, the revenue has consistently grown by 4%, 23% and 34% in second, third and fourth quarters, respectively,” the CM said.
There was a 44% increase in revenue in March with the state collecting ₹1,006 crore against ₹699 crore last year, Thakur said, adding that revenue receipts under VAT and state GST had registered a significant growth of 182% and 31%, respectively, in March.
The CM attributed the increase in VAT collections to the success of the legacy cases resolution scheme (LCRS). Under the scheme, the department has recovered ₹362 crore by disposing of cases of subsumed taxes, of which ₹182 crore has been collected in March alone.
“The primary reason for overall growth in revenue receipts has been revival of economic activities, the government’s unlock strategy, compliance by taxpayers and better administration by the department,” Thakur said.
“New initiatives by the department, especially monitoring of field units through performance cards, has created a healthy competitive environment across field formations, which has motivated officers to beat the assigned targets,” he said, adding that the department had recently started another initiative to evaluate its own performance using a performance card.
The CM said the department had identified focus areas for augmenting the state’s revenue collections, including recoveries under LCRS, physical verifications of e-way bills, compliance of GSTR3B return filings, recovery of interest for late filing of returns, recovery of ineligible ITC, recovery of tax deficits and mismatches and identification of cases pertaining to tax evasions and erroneous refunds.
