Even as the State Government is planning for a major climb up in the Plan Expenditure during 2014-15, the continuous fall in revenue collection during last nine months of the 2013-14 fiscal remains a cause of concern.
The downslide in revenue collection especially in land revenue, taxes on vehicles, mining sector and other taxes and duties experienced in the third quarter has become too glaring, said sources.
This has come to fore with the revenue collections results till December, 2013 being made public and it has turned out to be a major source of concern for the Government, admitted a senior official handling finances in the State.
While the collection of both own tax and non tax revenue till December 31 remained a mere 66.18 per cent of the target, it is only 61.36 per cent of the modified target set by the Chief Secretary.
The land revenue collection nosedived registering a negative growth in the third quarter. The Budget estimate for land revenue collection was targeted at Rs 900 crore during 2013-14, and by December-end only Rs 228.68 crore was collected, reflecting a minus growth of 12.57 per cent.
Similarly, collection of taxes on vehicles registered a negative growth of 11.11 per cent as the Government failed to appoint a fulltime Transport Commissioner. The Government targeted to collect Rs 900 crore from vehicles tax whereas by December-end the collection was only Rs 459.38 crore.
However, as against a target of Rs 11,095 crore for sales tax for 2013-14, the collection was Rs 6,910.34 crore by December 31, registering a growth of 11.68 per cent. The collection of excise revenue which was set at Rs 1,725 crore for 2014-15, amounted to Rs 1,085.48 crore, posting the highest growth of 18.31 per cent.
“The unabated fall in collection from the mineral sector is a major source of concern on the nontax revenue segment,” said an official, adding that though the target for this sector was set at Rs 5,515 crore, less than the previous year which was Rs 5,695 crore, this lesser target is also not being achieved. By the December-end, Rs 3,909.57 crore was collected registering a negative growth of 5.18 per cent, said the official.
Expressing concern over the disturbing trend in revenue collection, Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra is understood to have advised the concerned departments to rise to the occasion and fast-forward their efforts in achieving the targets.