Despite the state reeling under the worst-ever drought, the collections of commercial taxes instead of seeing any erosion in fact went up a little higher so far this fiscal, when compared to the corresponding period last fiscal.
During the period April to June, the revenue was registered at Rs 1915.89 crore, a 7.12 per cent higher than Rs 1788.48 crore during the corresponding period last year.
The growth in tax collections in the corresponding period of last fiscal was 7.1 per cent. Though there was a fall of around Rs 70 crore on account of shortfall in paddy/rice movement, it was made up by robust industrial/trade sector, said N Ramesh Kumar, the commissioner of commercial taxes, here.
He said the 25 check posts in the state, consisting of 5 integrated check posts (ICPs)and 10 border check posts (BCPs) were being connected to the AP State Wide Area Network which in turn would be networked with a Rs 3-crore state-of-the-art data centre coming up at the commissionerate here.
A closed circuit TV (CCTV) was installed at a cost of Rs 40 lakh at Bheemunivaripalem in Nellore district, near Tamil Nadu border, and the other ICPs also would have CCTVs soon to plug loopholes in the system and ensure correct and effective collection of taxes, Ramesh Kumar said.
The department is simplifying the procedures to ease the burden of compliance on the part of dealers.
Some categories of dealers can now use their own invoice-cum-challans in lieu of way bills. Some amendments had also been carried out in case of Form E and Form M returns.
A dealer hereafter can submit just dealer-wise information instead of invoice-wise. This change alone has brought down the paper work by over 90 per cent.
Similarly, dealers, who have turnover exceeding Rs 25 lakh and have to submit Form M, can now submit sale bills dealer-wise and if the value exceeds Rs 10,000 instead of Rs 1,000.
