Hit by fund crunch, Telangana mulls Corona cess

Hyderabad: With the State having landed in a precarious financial situation due to corona pandemic, the Telangana Government has begun an exercise to bridge the revenue deficit.

Among the important measures to increase the revenues, the government is planning to collect Covid cess from certain services offered by the government to people.

The government had already enhanced liquor prices by 20 per cent and collecting Covid cess from the day the liquor outlets were permitted to resume sales during the lockdown period in June this year.

A top official of the government said that the only option left before the State to increase the revenue is collection of Covid cess from the services offered by various revenue generating departments mainly Transport, Stamps and Registration and VAT on the fuels. Already, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi governments are collecting Covid cess on some public services.

The proposal to charge Covid cess in addition to the fee for vehicle registration, automobile sales, driving licences and other services offered by the Transportation department was under consideration.

A study on generation of additional revenues through Covid cess is under progress, said a senior official. The automobile industry particularly vehicle sales is picking up.

However, the gap between targeted revenues and the generation is quite huge due to sudden fall in the sales in the total lockdown period between April and June.

Another option before the government is to increase the land registration and stamp duty charges. As the entire realty sector was facing a slump, the enhancement of charges is ruled out for the present but imposing a small Covid cess is not ruled out. The modalities to collect the special cess from the property registrations is being prepared.