Despite economic meltdown and other local problems, the Chhattisgarh government has set a new record in collecting commercial tax.
The department of commercial tax has collected Rs 6,227.25 crore as against the target of Rs 5,713 crore in 2009-10. The collected tax is about 109 per cent of the target.
"I had submitted the report to the chief minister and informed about the achievement of the department during the period which was not favourable for tax collection," commercial tax minister Amar Agrawal told Business Standard.
"Beside economic slowdown, there were many factors that went against the department during the year. The steel and mining sectors, which were the main source of sales tax in the state, were reeling under recession while a court of law curtaileded the Value-Added Tax (VAT) on tendupatta from 25 per cent to two per cent," Agrawal said.
Even the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), the flagship entity of Steel Authority of India (SAIL), paid only 50 per cent of the tax and got a stay order from the Supreme Court that restricted collection of the remaining tax, the minister said. At one time, it appeared that the department would not be able to achieve the target, he added.
But the department succeeded in collecting about Rs 514 crore more than the target. The department launched a special awareness campaign on tax collection and took out the files of tax evasion that were decades old, Agrawal said.
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Officials visited the clients and asked them to pay the actual tax. The department conducted raids at about 30 business establishments. "The efforts yielded results and set new record of commercial tax collection in the state," Agrawal said.
As against the target of Rs 4,040 crore, the department collected Rs 4,456 crore as sales tax while Rs 1,180 crore was collected from excise against the target of Rs 1,158 crore. The stamp duty collection has increased by about 17 per cent as compared to the last fiscal. The department collected Rs 580 crore against the target of Rs 515 crore.