Booklet calls CM’s bluff on tax collection (Daily Herald) PANJIM, AUG 18 Chief Minister Digambar Kamat may have painted a rosy picture on collection of taxes by the government, during the last financial year, in the recently concluded assembly session, but the government’s own figures speak otherwise. Kamat had stated in the assembly that the collection of taxes by the Commercial Taxes Department was best in comparison to the recent years. In reality, the collection of several taxes has been much less than the revenue collected in 2008-09. Figures in the recently released booklet called “Goa – Economy in Figures – 2010”, compiled by the Directorate of Planning Statistics & Evaluation, show the State has drastically fallen behind in collection of revenue. The booklet gives statistical indicators as at the time of statehood in 1987 and those for the years 2008-09 and 2009-10. According to figures provided in the booklet the state has fallen short by Rs 101.82 in collection of the customs revenue. In comparison to the collection of Rs 776.32 crore in 2008-09, the State has managed to collect only 674.50 in 2009-10. Even the Central Excise revenue has gone down by a huge margin of Rs 202.47 crores. In 2008-09, the State had collected Central Excise of Rs 386.88 crore while in 2009-10 it managed to collect only Rs 184.41 crore. The collection of sales tax / value added tax (VAT) has also fallen short by Rs 2.64 crore. In 2008-09, the revenue collected was Rs 1131.65 cr compared to 1129.01 crore in 2009-10. As an impact of reduction in sales tax collection, the state share of sales tax/ VAT has also fallen short by Rs 18.48 crore. In 2009-10, the local ST/VAT collected is Rs 1051.78 crore which was 1072.9 crore a year before. Besides this, the State has also failed to collect Rs 200 crore as green cess on mining transport, which was announced in the State Budget in 2008
