Govt tapping all sources to shore up revenue

Hyderabad: In view of the requirement of huge funds for the implementation of the schemes during the Lok Sabha election time in the next two months, the State government has geared up to improve revenue generation by plugging loopholes in the tax collection wings, including speeding up the LRS scheme, mining of sand and other minerals, enhancing the leasing fee of government properties, protecting expensive government lands, and curbing non-duty-paid liquor.

Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka instructed officials to guarantee that the State's revenue remains under government control and is not diverted to private individuals. The Finance Minister, who chaired the cabinet sub-committee meeting on mobilisation of revenue resources and their management, directed the officials to take steps to mobilise additional and alternative revenue resources for the government without imposing a burden on the common man.

In order to prevent unauthorised registrations and safeguard government lands in Hyderabad and the surrounding areas, the officers have been directed to keep a vigilant watch. The minister asked the officers to work with the sole motto of protecting government lands.

The Deputy CM instructed that an open auction of sand should be conducted and sand should be kept in the agriculture market yards for easy availability to people. A situation should not arise where people must go to private people for the purchase of sand. The avenues for increasing revenue in house construction and other sectors should be explored, he added.

Bhatti said government lease rates would be reviewed and an exercise would be taken to revise the lease rates, particularly in the HMDA, industrial estates, and tourism sectors, for the mobilisation of additional revenue for the government. The HMDA authorities should bestow special focus on ORR surroundings, and there is scope for increasing income for the government by coordinating with various other departments in these areas, he suggested. He sought details about applications received under the layout regularisation scheme and progress on their processing. He also reviewed the reasons for the boom in the real estate sector in the past and the present situation.

The Minister directed the officials to give a report on systems to prevent adulteration of liquor, such as special security holograms, and on measures taken to increase check posts on the borders every week.

IT and Industry Minister D Sridhar Babu said that apart from lime stone ore in the State, manganese was available in Adilabad district. Information on the availability of minerals in various districts should be gathered so that it can be utilised for additional resource mobilisation by the State. In order to prevent illicit sand transport, he gave the officials instructions to install CCTV cameras in each sand-reach area. They were also told to closely monitor the vehicles delivering sand using vehicle tracking systems to boost State revenue and make sand easily accessible to the general public.