Negligence costs dearly in Telangana

Hyderabad: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has highlighted revenue leakages to the state exchequer due to negligence of various departments.

According to the CAG report on the revenue sector, the government has lost crores of rupees due to non-levy, short levy of  VAT/ CST collections, excise duty, stamp duty and registration fee, taxes on vehicles, land revenue etc.

In 17 offices, 26 dealers had incorrectly declared taxes at lower rates on the sale of commodities such as ACs, electronic weighing scales, confectionary etc.
The application of incorrect rates of tax resulted in short levy of tax of Rs 23.79 crore.

In 12 offices involving 27 cases, sales turnover of textiles and fabrics of Rs 263.76  crore was incorrectly exempted which resulted in non-levy of VAT of Rs 13.19 crore.

The assessing authority levied a penalty of Rs 12.29 crore instead of Rs 24.57 crore for claiming input tax credit based on false tax invoices resulting in a short-levy of penalty of Rs 12.28 crore.

Incorrect classification of lands due to lack of coordination between departments, adoption of incorrect market values, undervaluation of properties and non-adherence to instructions resulted in non-levy, short-levy of duties and fees amounting to Rs 11 crore.

Tax amounting to Rs 1.80 crore and penalty of Rs 90 lakh were not realised from owners of 1,213 transport vehicles. The non-renewal of fitness certificates of 53,566 transport vehicles resulted in non-realisation of fee of Rs 1.19 crore besides compromising on road safety. In districts, re-survey of land was not conducted for 20 to 60 years.

Incorrect preparation of village maps led to land disputes and made 500 acres of government land physically unavailable. Non-finalisation of alienation proposals resulted in non-realisation of cost of land amounting to Rs 8 crore in five cases.