Chief Minister Hemant Soren today stressed on doubling revenue generation of the State at the same time asking officials to take effective steps to curb tax evasion across the State. The CM was chairing the review meeting of the Planning cum Finance department and Commercial Taxes department on the first day of his marathon review meetings here on Wednesday.
“The Central government owes the state GST compensation payments. But, the Centre has not yet taken the initiative towards payment. The revenue collection currently being done by the Finance and Commercial Taxes department is not satisfactory. Work towards doubling the revenue. Revenue collection should start as priority. There will be expenditure for the development of Jharkhand and the people here to benefit from the schemes. But the state income should also increase,” said the CM.
The CM further said that the State depends to a large extent on the collection of revenue by the Commercial Taxes Department. “The department should keep an eye on every corner of the State so that revenue collection can be done better. Work towards curbing tax evasion. The department has to strengthen itself by joining the IT cell. Develop a better system than tax evaders. The high-tech system will end tax evasion to a large extent. The government is ready to provide you all kinds of facilities for this,” he said to officials.
Soren said that several cases are pending in Courts under Electricity Duty. The Commerce Tax Department should review all those matters. “Pay special attention to matters of higher amount. Put your side firmly in the Courts. If the department works by recognizing its potential, then more revenue will be received. About 4,552 cases are going on in different courts in different cases, under which there is an outstanding of Rs4, 230 crore, which the department has to get,” he said.
The CM said that the District Mineral Fund is more or less in a district. In such a district, where the budget is more allocated for development works such as road, water and electricity, the concerned departments should transfer the plan budget amount to other districts and do the development works. Include CSR Fund in this as well. This can be decided after studying the guidelines, said the CM.
Soren said that coal companies doing mining work in districts bordering the State are getting information about purchasing diesel from other states, while their agreement is to get diesel from local petrol pump. Improve in this direction, so that the revenue district does not have to bear the loss of revenue.
The CM took detailed information on total receipts for the financial year 2020- 21, the comparative details of the amount received from the share in central taxes, the receipts of revenue of major departments, the current status of GST compensation, budgetary provisions and expenditure status, the total budget for the financial year 2020-21 , Sectoral wise outlay of Scheme item in Fiscal Year 2020-21, Fiscal year 2020-21 Component wise total budget, Provision status in Fiscal Year 2020-21 Establishment item, Expenditure allowance in Fiscal Year 2020-21, Status of financial deficit Obtained the status of permanent / working and vacant posts under the co-finance departments, state planning under the planning division, aspirational district plan from the officers of the department and gave necessary guidelines related to it.
Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh, Development Commissioner KK Khandelwal, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Rajeev Arun Ekka, Secretary of Planning-cum-Finance Department, Himani Pandey, Secretary of Commercial Tax Department, Vandana Dadel, and departmental officers were present in the meeting.