THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Conceding that has optimism was misplaced, finance minister Dr Thomas Isaac has said that the growth in tax revenue that he had targeted for the 2016-17 fiscal would not be achieved. “The government had projected a revenue growth of 19.39 per cent for the ongoing fiscal, but the latest estimate shows that it will not go beyond 15 per cent,” Isaac said in a written reply to a question in the Assembly on Tuesday.
During June, the first month of Isaac’s take over, growth swelled to 19 percent, the highest in three years. But the subsequent months witnessed dramatic fall. July was worst, with a growth of just 3 percent. During July, the growth was 7 percent. For both August and September, the growth was 9 percent. “There is so much pressure on the treasury this year,” Isaac said. As per budget estimates for 2016-17, the government was expecting a tax revenue of Rs 47,613.61 crore. As per the initial projections for 2016-17, the government had expected sales tax revenue to rise from Rs 31193.19 crore to Rs 37452.98 crore and the revenue from excise by Rs 311.07 crore (from Rs 2086.29 crore to Rs 2397.36 crore). Motor vehicle tax revenue was expected to rise from Rs 2837.35 crore to Rs 3406.49 crore, and income from stamp paper duty and registration from Rs 3039.53 crore to Rs 3469.41 crore.
“Tax leakage is a fact. If we can plug that, the revenue also will increase,'' he said, adding that '4000 crore worth of tax revenue was tied up in appeals, and another '2000 crore in cases in the High Court. “It is seen that in 2011-16, government issued stays on collection of commercial taxes alone for an amount of Rs 440.41 crore,” he said. The total tax revenues raised but not realised by the end of 2014-15 fiscal was Rs13,019.81 crore. Of this, Rs 7861.42 crore is undisputed, but still not collected. Isaac said these issues could be addressed by establishing appeal courts and tax benches to settle the disputes.
