Karnataka govt warns of strict action against tax evasion

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday instructed the Commercial Tax Officers to take strict action against cases of tax evasion, tax leakage and tax pilferage in the state.

He was speaking at the review meeting of the Commercial Tax Department in the conference hall of Vidhana Soudha on Thursday.

The Chief Minister appreciated that the growth rate of tax collection by Commercial Tax Department's is 19.2 per cent, which is the highest in the country.

He also said that officers should not be satisfied and must explore the opportunities to detect more and more tax evasion cases to exceed the tax collection target.

He said that the department should pay more attention to prevent tax evasion by intensive enforcement.

The growth rate is 19.2 per cent and is the highest in the country. The country's average tax collection growth rate is only 15 per cent.

The share of the state in the total tax collection of the country is 9.4 per cent. Officials explained to the Chief Minister that the state's tax collection share is more than previous year.

The Chief Minister instructed the officials to outdo the given growth target of 24 per cent and achieve it. He directed to prevent tax evasion by taking action against tax evaders.

He said that the achievement should be more than the target and those left behind should make every effort. Vigilance forces should also cooperate. Progress will be reviewed again after two months. He said that by the next meeting, steps should be taken to make the situation more optimistic than now.

“Necessary facilities are provided to prevent tax evasion. Your efforts can bring more tax to the state. It has come to my notice that tax evasion in many products is going on in many parts. Be attentive in this regard and collect tax. If more taxes are collected, more development works can be undertaken. We should work with collective responsibility,” the Chief Minister said.

Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister Dr. Rajneesh Goel, Finance Department Additional Chief Secretary L.K. Ateeq, Finance Department Secretaries Dr. P.C. Zafar and Dr. M.T. Reju, Commercial Tax Department Commissioner C. Shikha, Chief Minister's Political Secretary K. Govindaraju and Naseer Ahmed and other senior officers were present.