Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has laid special focus on checking tax evasion to increase revenue earnings of the state government. As part of this initiative, he has decided to increase mobile enforcement units to carry out raids on tax evaders.
He directed officials to step up vigilance and improve the intelligence network to catch offenders, prevent evasions of GST and other taxes. Following the CM's directions, officials stepped up raids across the state.
Revanth Reddy’s efforts seem to be paying dividends as the income from sand mining and sales increased from Rs 1 crore per day during the previous BRS regime to Rs 3 crore per day now. The GST collections also increased by nearly Rs 350 crore per month since the Congress came to power in December.
Following the Chief Minister's directions, GST officials raided Tonique liquor outlets in the city for two days last week and found that products like cigarettes, chocolates and other food stuff were being sold for which large-scale tax evasion was detected.
Similarly, the commercial taxes department officials on Thursday unearthed illegal Rs 25.65 crore GST refund claimed by three firms. They included Naskon Associates LLP (Rs 5.56 crore), Naskon Soft Solutions Pvt Ltd (Rs 14.02 crore) and Cemetrix (IT) Services PvtLtd (Rs 6.05 crore).
Revanth Reddy directed all the revenue generating departments to achieve the annual targets set for the tax collections by plugging loopholes and leakages in tax collections. He had a detailed review on tax collections by the commercial taxes, excise, stamps and registrations, transport, mines and mineral departments for the year 2023-24.
He also questioned a big gap between the targets set by the government and revenue generation from the commercial taxes department.
Revanth Reddy ordered officials to stop the supply of non-duty paid liquor (NDPL) in Telangana from neighbouring states and asked them to take stringent action following the reports of variations in the computation between the supply and sale of liquor.
Excise and Prohibition department officials have been asked to install CCTV cameras at every distillery and the liquor delivery vehicles should be equipped with GPS for tracking them. Bottle tracking system and way bills for the liquor supply vehicles should also be maintained accurately. He also directed the officials to submit a report on the progress of several cases registered in the past along with non-duty paid liquor.
Revanth Reddy also ordered officials to track sand transport vehicles and curb the illegal transportation. He reminded that fines have been imposed on many mines in the past and cases have been registered for violating the rules. The officials have been asked to collect the fine amount immediately. Revanth Reddy also instructed the officials to submit a report on the reasons for reducing the fine amount in some cases.
