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In spite of representation during the Eleventh Finance Commission, the tax devolution has come down. The ratio of Central taxes to total revenues has been declining since 1996-97, according to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu.

HYDERABAD, May 6

WHILE highlighting the Andhra Pradesh's revenue collection, which is more than the country's average and better than other southern states, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, said that the devolution continues to be a matter of concern.

The Chief Minister, speaking to newspersons at Secretariat here on Monday, highlighted the State's buoyancy in tax collection, while expressing concern about the need for a better tax devolution formula.

"If need be, a concerted effort has to be initiated with other States to impress upon the Centre for better tax devolution.''

In spite of representation during the Eleventh Finance Commission, the tax devolution has come down. The ratio of Central taxes to total revenues has been declining since 1996-97. The ratio has steeply declined from a level of 37.58 per cent to 25.78 per cent in 2001-2002.

Mr Naidu said that this ratio is further likely to come down to 25.37 per cent during the current financial year. This is a matter of concern not only for Andhra Pradesh but to other performing States as well.

"We need to take up the issue with the Finance Ministry. Already Tamil Nadu has expressed its intent towards this,'' he said. To bring discipline in the tax collection mechanism, Mr Naidu said the State has embarked on a performance evaluation mechanism, which means fixing responsibility on officials and monitoring their performance of the zone or segment he handles. This is aimed at plugging holes in the system.

The performance of Andhra Pradesh's State tax collection was better than Central taxes. The growth rate of the State's own major taxes was 11.5 per cent while Central taxes collection in Andhra Pradesh was 5.4 per cent while comparative Central taxes all India is -1.68 per cent, as per revised estimates.

The annual revenue collection for major taxes during financial year 2001-2002 was Rs 11,726 crore, the Budget estimates for the current financial year 2002-2003 are fixed at Rs 13,405 crore. He said that the contribution department-wise was estimated as follows — commercial taxes (Rs 8,803 crore), excise (Rs 1,903 crore), transport (Rs 896 crore), stamps and registration (Rs 896 crore), mines and geology (Rs 666 crore), forest (Rs 117 crore), land revenue (Rs 130 crore) and nala (Rs 15 crore).

Mr Naidu said that the performance of commercial taxes had been higher than average growth rate of southern States in the financial year 2000-2001. For the year 2001-2002, the growth rate was on the higher side. The performance growth rate is better than southern States.

Further, Andhra Pradesh ranks fourth among top five states in terms of own taxes revenues to percentage of NSDP for 1999-2000. The State has improved its share of own taxes to NSDP for the financial year 2000-201 as per Economic Survey-2001-20002.

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