THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is now clear that the Value Added Tax regime will not have a graceful exit from the state by the end of June. The revenue from VAT, despite finance minister Dr T. M. Thomas Isaac’s earnest efforts, continues to disappoint even during the 2017-18 fiscal. In fact, the growth in tax collection has become even more pitiable. During the whole of 2016-17, the increase in tax revenue was an unhealthy 11 percent. Fortunes have gone further south with the start of the 2017-18 fiscal.
The growth during April, the first month of the fiscal, was a paltry eight percent. During May it was even worse, just five percent. (April collection – Rs 1,898.16 crore. May collection – Rs 2,911.27 crore). Mr Isaac has estimated 20 percent growth in tax revenue during this fiscal. The only bright spot in the state for the finance department was Ernakulam district, which had shown between 13-15 percent growth in tax collections. Incidentally, Ernakulam is the only district where the finance minister had launched his tax collection drive.
If Isaac was not able to extend his drive to other districts, the new indirect tax regime GST has to take part of the blame. “The cream of our tax officials are now being deputed to supervise the migration to the GST regime,” a top finance department official said. “This also means that most of the officers out in the field are not the ones we are confident about.” Sources in the finance department said that a “strange degeneracy” had crept in and crippled the tax administration in the state.
“Last time when the LDF came to power, there were at least 200 officials who could be posted to crucial positions. Now, we will be lucky if there are at least 50,” the source said. Honest and efficient officers create additional revenue by picking up suspicious self-assessment documents. Certain traders have a tendency to be modest while submitting their returns. “It is not as if officers fail to identify false assessments. They do. But they call up the lying trader and settle the issue between themselves behind the back of the state,” the finance department official said.
