Taxing time for Telangana

​Hyderabad: Soon after the hike in bus fares and power tariff, the Telangana government is all set to put another Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 1,500 crore burden on people by revising the existing tax structure in all departments that offer value added services and revenue generating wings like Stamps, Excise and Transport.

Perhaps it is the first time after the formation of Telangana in 2014 that the State government has taken up the mammoth task of restructuring the tax base to increase revenues. The government has embarked on an ambitious target of Rs 43,115 crore more in tax collections during the 2016-17 financial year, which is 39 per cent higher than the last year’s target.

Of the total Rs 57,000 crore revenue target, Rs 43,000 crore would be collected by the Commercial Taxes department (which includes Transport, Stamps and Registration) and Rs 14,000 crore alone would come from the Excise and Prohibition department.

Nearly 25 departments have recently submitted proposals seeking nod to increase taxes levied on different services. The Transport department has also submitted a request to raise service charges on vehicle
registrations and new driving licenses.

The Municipal Administration and Urban Development department wants to increase service charges on drinking water supply, sanitation and street lighting. The department also proposed to impose market cess in urban local bodies and increase education cess on institutions.

The services charges collected from MeeSeva centres would also be expensive as the government has proposed to increase the charges by at least 10 per cent. The Seva centres have been offering more than 100 services like issuance of birth certificates, income and resident certificates and permissions to establish schools and industries through online.

Similarly, the service charges on the State services like online electricity bill payment, online water bill, property tax and sales taxes would be increased slightly. A senior official of the State Commercial Taxes department told The Hans India that an increase in user charges on basic civic services and surcharges on pending bills was also proposed.

A hike in the service tax and excise duty on liquor sales was also proposed, sources said. As a result, liquor prices could swell and burn a hole in consumer’s pocket, officials said adding that the whole exercise was done only to restructure the tax base and not to impose heavy financial burden on people.

However, officials declined to disclose details of the hike in the taxes in each service. The proposed new tax structure would help in increasing revenue collections by Rs 100 crore per month in addition to the regular revenues.

To achieve the revenue target, Commercial Taxes department has already launched a drive to bring more number of people and business establishments in to the tax net. Officials said Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao would take a final decision on the revised tax structures only after consulting all heads of the departments.

By: Patan Afzal Babu