Despite the political crisis, collection of commercial tax in the state grew 30 per cent in 2010-11 over the previous year. For 2011-12, it is expected to increase 20 per cent.
“The year 2009 was a bad year for the state and also for the entire country, where we just saw a 10 per cent growth in tax collection. Whereas, in 2010-11, the state saw a 30 per cent growth and collected Rs 33,000 crore,” said Suresh Chandra, commissioner of commercial taxes, AP.
For the current financial year, the department has projected a 20 per cent growth in tax collection at Rs 40,000 crore. “So far, we have been on track,” he said.
The Commercial Tax Department is the largest revenue generator contributing over 65 per cent to the state’s revenue. A major portion of it comes from sales tax. The state collected Rs 450 crore luxury taxes last year.
He said the strike did not have much impact and the loss was minimal. The tax collection in the automobile sector in the last two months had slowed down. Cement and steel too were facing a slowdown.
According to him, the government has made some changes to the AP Value Added Tax Act 2005 based on the recommendations of a committee. “One of the changes include increasing the tax rate on tobacco products to 20 per cent from the previous 14.5 per cent,” he said while addressing a seminar organised by the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Fapcci) here.
