State earns Rs 7,653.15 crore through GST in first 3 months

Vijayawada: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the officials to focus on providing alternative livelihood opportunities to people involved in country-liquor manufacturing.

At a review meeting held at his camp office here on Monday on revenue generating departments, the Chief Minster said awareness should be created among the country liquor makers and officials should ensure that the alternative livelihood programmes are effectively implemented.

Officials said that the liquor sales have abnormally come down in volume since 2018-19. While 384.36 lakh cases of liquor were sold in 2018-19, the sales came down to 335.98 lakh cases in 2022-23, they said, adding that beer sales also came down to 116.76 lakh cases from 277.16 lakh cases in the same period.

Percentage wise, the sales of beer and liquor in the first three months of the present fiscal came down by 56.51 % and 5.28% respectively when compared to the corresponding period of the fiscal 2018-19. While the income from the registrations department till July 15 in the last financial year was Rs 2,291.97 crore, it went up to Rs 2,793.70 crore in the corresponding period in the present fiscal, they said.

They further said that registration services have begun in villages where resurvey of lands has been completed and 5,000 registrations took place so far in village secretariats fetching revenue of Rs 8.03 crore. The Chief Minister was informed that Rs 7,653.15 crore of GST revenue (apart from compensation) has been generated in the first three months of the present fiscal posting an increase of 23.74% over the corresponding period in the last fiscal.

“In the first three months, we have achieved the target up to 91 per cent.” they said.

Officials told him that APMDC has been getting more revenue from Mangampeta Barytes reserves and Suliyari coal block which is expected to produce 5 million tonnes of coal this year. APMDC’s revenue has gone up to Rs 1,806 crore in 2022-23 from Rs 502 crore in 2020-21, they said, adding it will go up to Rs 4,000 crore in 2023-24.

The Chief Minister pointed out that the revenue in these departments has gone up in the last four years due to the implementation of policies in full transparency, introduction of reforms and plugging of loopholes.

Reviewing the transport department, he said officials should implement best vehicle tax policies in the State by introducing reforms and implementing new policies after carefully studying the tax policies in vogue in other States.

“The new policies should be the best in the country to encourage vehicle buyers,” he said, adding that revenue generating departments should involve the District Collectors more and more in the implementation of policies.

Finance and other departments should hold review meetings with District Collectors periodically to strengthen revenue generating mechanism, plug loopholes and create more awareness on the policies, he suggested.

Home Minister T Vanita, Municipal Administration Minister A Suresh, Special Chief Secretaries Neerabh Kumar Prasad (Environment, Forest, Science & Technology), Y Srilakshmi (MA &UD), Dr Rajat Bhargava (Excise, Registration and Stamps), S S Rawat (Finance) and Gopalakrishna Dwivedi (Mines and Geology), Principal Secretary Harish Kumar Gupta (Home), Transport Secretary Pradyumna, Transport Commissioner MK Sinha, Finance Secretary N Guljar, Chief Commissioner (Commercial Taxes) M Girija Sankar, Prohibition & Excise Commissioner Vivek Yadav, Municipal Administration Commissioner Koteswara Rao, Stamps & Registrations Commissioner Ramakrishna, AP Beverages Corporation MD Vasudeva Reddy and Mines Director VG Venkata Reddy were also present.