Warangal: Collector asks officials to crack whip on tax evaders

Warangal: The Warangal Urban District administration has decided to crack whip on tax evaders. Collector Prashanth Jeevan Patil, who held a meeting with the officials concerned here on Friday, told them to personally monitor the tax evaders and make them to pay.

"Since the formation of Telangana in 2014 to August end this year, various business establishments have intentionally evaded Rs 73 crore taxes under various heads, according to the figures of the Vigilance & Enforcement wing. Time has come for the officials to go tough on these tax evaders. Serving mere notices to these evaders is not going to yield results," Patil said.

The Collector directed the officials to collect at least 50 percent of the pending amount by November end. In all, the officials have to collect the entire due within a couple of months, he said, referring to the State government's directions to go tough on evaders. He instructed the officials to invoke the provisions of Revenue Recovery Act against those unwilling to pay their pending taxes.

Stating that he would review the progress of tax collection every fortnight, the Collector expressed dissatisfaction over some officials going soft on tax evaders. He directed the officials to hold a meeting with the executive officers of 51 temples that come under the Common Good Fund of the Endowments department.

He said that action initiated against hotels, provisional stores, rice mills etc, which were evading taxes was nil. He also faulted the officials for blindly accepting the turnover presented by the business establishments. The Collector directed the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) to conduct a special drive to collect trade license fee.

He told the GWMC officials to look into illegal layouts and ventures.

He also found fault with the Mining wing as it had to collect Rs 48 lakh. He also spoke about transport, commercial wings.

Special Collector Manu Chowdary, DRO P Mohan Lal, RDO Venkat Reddy, GWMC Additional Commissioner G Nageshwar, Regional Vigilance and Enforcement ASP B Srinivas Reddy, CTO Sudhakar Reddy and representatives of Endowments, Registrations, Fire Safety, KUDA were among others present.