Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday said the pre fabricated Covid hospital would soon be completed in Nerchowk Medical college, which would enhance bed capacity for patients, adding that beds, oxygen cylinders and drugs kits for Covid are available in adequate numbers.
Presiding over a review meeting related to Covid-19, he said that a decline in cases of coronavirus has been observed in the district but it is important to be vigilant and sensitive towards efforts being made to control the virus.
He said safety of the people of the state is the priority of the State Government, pointing out that effective steps have been taken to contain the spread of the virus, as a result of which a decline in the graph of Covid cases has not only been witnessed in District Mandi but also in the state.
Thakur said action plan has been chalked out for vaccination process on availability of Covid vaccine, adding that if the situation of coronavirus remains in control in the district, then OPD would be started in Nerchowk medical College to facilitate people of the area. He also urged the people to follow the guidelines of Covid-19 to contain the spread of the virus.
He said the Him Surksha campaign being run in the state would continue till 4th January and 10 lakh persons have been screened in District Mandi. He said that information of diseases such as TB, leprosy, diabetes and blood pressure were also being collected under the campaign.
HIMACHAL REGISTERS 25% GROWTH IN REVENUE IN DECEMBER
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that Himachal Pradesh registered 25 percent growth for the month of December 2020 in revenue receipts under all heads of the Excise and Taxation department vis-a-vis the revenue receipts of December 2019. He said that total revenue receipts during the month of December 2020 are Rs. 772 crores against Rs. 619 crores during the same period of last year. This continues the positive trend of the last four months. The revenue receipts of the department grew at 15 percent in August 2020, 10 percent in September 2020, 37 percent in October 2020 and nine percent in November, 2020.
Thakur said that a significant increase of 45 percent in revenue receipts of VAT, 29 percent in revenue receipts of excise and 16 percent in revenue receipts of the state GST have been registered in December 2020. He said the significant increase in revenue receipts has been due to revival of economic activities, government’s unlock strategy, better compliance by taxpayers and better administration by the department.
It is important to mention that despite of COVID-19 effect, the gap between cumulative revenue of the current financial year and previous financial year was down to seven percent in December 2020 from 39 percent in July 2020. Further, new initiatives of monitoring of field units through performance cards have created a healthy competitive work environment across the field authorities where each authority drives motivation to make strenuous efforts to beat the assigned targets. This has contributed significantly in augmentation of state revenue receipts. The efforts of the field units have further been strengthened with the enhanced analytical and data driven intelligence-based capabilities at headquarter level.
The Chief Minister said that major focus areas have been identified for augmenting the state revenue receipts like recoveries under legacy cases resolution scheme, physical verifications of e-way bills, compliance of GSTR3B return fillings, recovery of interest for late filing of returns, recovery of ineligible ITCs and recovery of tax deficits/mismatches etc. He added that special focus has been laid on identification of cases pertaining to tax evasions and erroneous refunds to plug revenue leakages so as to augment the state revenues.