The Hindu Business Line : VAT registers marginal rise in AP tax collections

In April and May, the department clocked revenues to the tune of Rs 1,448.94 crore, against Rs 1,443.96 crore, showing a growth of just 1.34 per cent.

If contributions under the heads of petrol and liquor are excluded, there is actually a fall in revenues from all other commodities. The decline is to the extent of 2.93 per cent. This is due to the provision for input tax credit as well as the lowering of tax rates in the VAT regime.

In a review meeting with department officials here on Thursday, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, directed officials to firm up return collections and ensure that all VAT dealers filed the returns and paid taxes promptly.

Of the 1,20,000 VAT dealers, only 85,000 submitted their first month returns. The officials told the Chief Minister that some dealers, who had obtained VAT registrations, were not fully aware of the compliance norms.

"They have been filing returns annually all these years. But they need to file their returns every month," they said.

The Chief Minister asked the officials to allow the dealers submit their returns of April up to June 20 without penalty. "After that they would be liable to pay interest and penalty," a Government release said.

With regard to the phasing out of Central Sales Tax (CST) in the next two years, the Chief Minister asked the officials to strengthen checkposts. CST will be reduced to 2 per cent from April 1, 2006, and further reduced to zero the following year.

To start with, the department will strengthen checkposts at eight high-density points.

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