Excise revenue of Himachal rose by 3% despite Covid: CM

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 2

The total revenue of the state Excise and Taxation Department during 2020-21 has surpassed the previous financial year’s collection by 3 per cent despite the Covid-19 pandemic, said Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday.

He said, “The revenue collection in the first quarter of the financial year was down by 52 per cent, but thereafter it constantly grew by 4 per cent, 23 per cent and 34 per cent in the second, third and fourth quarters, respectively”.

Economic revival

The revival of economic activities, unlock strategy of the government, better compliance by taxpayers and better administration by the Excise Department are the major reasons for the revenue growth. — Jai Ram Thakur, Chief Minister

Thakur said that the revenue collection in March this year was Rs 1,006 crore compared to Rs 699 crore during the month last year, a jump of 44 per cent. He added that revenue receipts from VAT and state GST registered a significant growth of 182 per cent and 31 per cent, respectively, in March 2021.

He said the major increase in VAT collection was primarily due to the success of the Legacy Cases Resolution Scheme. “Under the scheme, the department has recovered Rs 362 crore by disposing of cases pertaining to subsumed taxes. Around Rs 182 crore of it was collected in March this year,” he added.

The Chief Minister said that the major reasons for the revenue growth were the revival of economic activities, government’s unlock strategy, better compliance by taxpayers and better administration by the department. He added that a new initiative of the department to monitor field units through performance cards had created a healthy competitive environment, resulting in greater motivation of officers to beat the assigned targets.

Thakur said that the department had identified major focus areas to augment revenue collection from recoveries under the Legacy Cases Resolution Scheme, physical verification of e-way bills, compliance with GSTR3B return filings, recovery of interest for late filing of returns, recovery of ineligible ITC, recovery of tax deficits/ mismatches and the identification of cases pertaining to tax evasion and erroneous refunds.