Dehradun: Additional Chief Secretary Finance Anand Bardhan reviewed the revenue receipts of State Tax, Stamp and Registration, Excise, Mining, Forest, Transport and Energy Departments. In the meeting, the officers of the Mining Department were instructed to apply in advance for the renewal of expiring Leases and Clearances etc. and to conduct surveys for the possibility of additional mining in new areas, upload all the cases on PM Gati Shakti Portal, issue Mining Plan and Timeline of related approvals by the Mining Directorate, immediately apply for EC in cases as required and hold a review meeting again in 15 days. The Forest Department officials were directed to implement the National Transit Pass System at all check posts, install solar panels on the sheds built in the forest depots, include areas with an altitude of more than 1000 meters in the working plan and take further action to review the circle-wise revenue collection targets and their recovery. Also, instructions were given to conduct a monthly review of revenue collection and provide an action plan to the Finance Department on how much revenue will be earned in the next 4 months.
In the next review meeting, instructions were also given to present a detailed presentation focused on earning proper revenue from linseed, eco-tourism and herbs. It was also directed that the Forest Department should conduct an internal review for departmental revenue growth under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary Forest.
In the review meeting, first of all, the action taken to achieve the department-wise revenue collection targets and the instructions given in the previous meeting for revenue collection were reviewed. The Additional Chief Secretary pointed out the need to achieve the revenue targets in a timely manner and directed the officers of all departments to achieve the targets with top priority.
During the review, it became clear that till date, about 61% of the state’s own tax revenue (Own Source Revenue) has been achieved as compared to the budget estimates.
In the major departments related to tax revenue, such as the State Tax Department, 60% revenue has been achieved in SGST and 69% in VAT as compared to the budget estimates.
Similarly, 66% has been achieved under excise, 64% under stamp and registration fee, 59% under vehicle tax, 44% under energy tax revenue till now.
Major departments related to non-tax revenue such as mining have received 69% of the budget estimates and forest has received 47%.
Anand Bardhan directed to pay special attention to achieving revenue targets in energy, forest and SGST.
In the meeting, the officers of the State Tax Department were directed to use Artificial Intelligence to curb evaders and to collect adequate revenue from the service sector.
Excise department officials were directed to recover the outstanding amount.
Transport department officials were directed to explore the possibilities of rationalization of various taxes, toll tax on vehicles coming from outside as well as to collect Green Cess through fast tags, and to bring progress in relation to ANPR cameras.
Similarly, the officers of the Energy Department were directed to expedite the process of prepaid meters in urban areas, and to increase billing efficiency and collection efficiency. Anand Bardhan gave instructions to make effective use of ANPR cameras in departments like forest, state tax, mining and transport etc.
Secretary Finance Dilip Jawalkar, Brijesh Sant, H.C. Semwal, Additional Secretary C. Ravishankar, Dr. Iqbal Ahmed, Vineet Kumar, N.K. Joshi, Manmohan Mainali, MD Forest Development Corporation Girija Shankar Pandey, MD UPCL Anil Yadav, MD Pitkul Dhyani and various departmental officers were present in the meeting.
