Karnataka CM chairs review meeting on GST collections, directs officials to do more

Bengaluru: Expressing happiness over Karnataka achieving the second highest GST growth in the country, Chief Minister D K Shivakumar recently said he was confident that the state would exceed tax collection targets for the current financial year.

Holding a review meeting of the Commercial Taxes department at Vidhana Soudha, the CM said: “Officials of the Finance department, Finance Adviser L K Atheeq, and Additional Chief Secretary of the Finance Ritesh Kumar have offered several suggestions to improve the department’s performance. The responsibility of implementing them strictly now rests on all of you. I have full faith in the officials. I am also confident that all of you will strive to fulfill my expectations.”

“No goods-carrying vehicles should cross a check-post at our state borders without the necessary documents. There must be no scope for tax evasion. There is no room for any compromise or negligence,” he instructed officials.

Shivakumar said: “I am observing everything. Information reaches me from every region of the state on a regular basis. From Chickpet to Gandhinagar and from the border districts to every part of the state, I have my contacts. Any lapse or negligence in the functioning of officials will come to my notice. Therefore, the information reaching me and your performance reports must match one another,” he said.

He also directed officials to achieve good coordination with the Commercial Tax departments and enforcement agencies of neighbouring states and added that tax evasion must be effectively prevented through information-sharing and joint operations.

“Today, we have information on about 12 lakh taxpayers. You have the capacity to analyse them from a 360-degree perspective using technology and data analytics. If you use this opportunity properly, you are capable not only of achieving the targets set but of exceeding it,” he said.

‘No harassment’

The Chief Minister said: “Our intention is not to cause unnecessary trouble to anyone. Honest taxpayers must be taken into confidence. Every tax-paying citizen must be treated with dignity and respect. Likewise, if you take the department’s staff into confidence and work intelligently, it is possible to achieve results beyond set targets.”

He expressed the view that there must be no scope whatsoever for tax fraud. “Strict measures must be taken to completely prevent tax leakage. By the time the next review meeting is held, every instruction I have given today must have been implemented. In the next meeting, I will personally review your performance with many real examples,” he added.

He also observed that Karnataka had made good progress in GST collections and surpassed states such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Haryana.

He said: “In collaboration with IIT Hyderabad, close surveillance is being kept on GST fraud through a GST analytics portal. Although several types of GST fraud have been detected through this, Karnataka must achieve complete progress in this area. Fake invoices and fake Input Tax Credit have become a major challenge. We are handling this challenge capably. By detecting bogus companies, we have collected Rs 166 crore. Let the rate of legal action against those who set up bogus companies increase. Until now, the rate of arresting those committing bogus operations was low. Officials have stated that arrests have now been increased. In addition, when lapses are found on the part of staff, warnings have been issued through strict measures,” he said.

Mysuru concern

“The decline in performance in the Mysuru division has been taken seriously. Giving excuses and reasons for the decline is not acceptable to me. Results matter. Whatever technical difficulties there may be, resolve them and produce a good result,” he directed.