The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has asked the state government to take speedy and effective action for realising Rs 10,221 crore of unrealised revenue from various departments. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (revenue receipts) for the year that ended 31 March 2009, which was tabled in the assembly on Thursday, indicates the largest number of outstanding audit observations in the department of commercial taxes (11,664) valued at Rs 2,874 crore, followed by tax on vehicles (1,587) valued at Rs 2,226 crore, mines and minerals (293) valued at Rs 1,596 crore and land revenue (7,794) valued at Rs 1,595 crore.
The report states, “It indicates that the heads of departments/offices, whose records were inspected by the AG, failed to discharge due responsibility as they did not send reply to a large number of IRs/paragraphs and also did not take any remedial measures for the defects, omissions and irregularities pointed out by the accountant general.”
The report points out that the arrears of revenue in sales tax, taxes on vehicles, land revenue, purchase tax on sugarcane and taxes and duties on electricity, etc. amounted to Rs 6,507.5 crore, of which Rs 3,157.11 crore has been pending for more than five years.
The position of arrears of revenue at the end of 2008-09 in respect of the registration and other departments was not furnished by the government despite being requested in April 2009 and reminded in June 2009, the report observes.
It also said that the expenditure on collection in taxes on vehicles and stamp duty and registration fee was higher than the all-India average and the government needed to look into this aspect.
A test check of the records of sales tax, land revenue, taxes on vehicles, stamp duty and registration fee and other departmental offices conducted during 2008-09 revealed under assessment/ short levy/ loss of revenue, etc amounting to Rs 876.90 crore in 2,273 cases.
Will these ever be recovered?