Maharashtra government unsure where it spent professional tax worth Rs14,000 crore, says RTI activist

Anil Galgali says the government had said this amount would be spent for Employment Guarantee Scheme, but that it didn’t

The state government has diverted the Rs14,047 crore it collected as professional tax in the past seven years to other purposes instead of using it for the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS), Right to Information (RTI) activist Anil Galgali has alleged.

Professional tax is collected from people earning salary and also from professionals like doctors, lawyers and chartered accountants. (GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO)

Galgali said he had filed an RTI query on this matter with the Sales Tax Department. “Initially the state government has stated that this amount would be spent for EGS, but it did not do so. The department to my query stated that they did not have any information where the amount was being used,” said Galgali.

Galgali said in that his query, the Sales Tax Department which collects the tax, replied that it was unaware where this amount has been utilised.

Sales tax commissioner Rajiv Jalota was unavailable for comment despite several attempts.

The professional tax is collected from people earning salary and also from professionals like doctors, lawyers and chartered accountants.

Galgali then filed another RTI with the Finance Department on this issue of deployment of funds through professional tax. “The finance department informed me that the tax collected is deposited in the consolidated fund and hence it is not possible to provide information on which area was the collected fund utilised,” Galgali said.