Tamil Nadu's commercial tax revenue has jumped nearly 20 per cent in the first two months of the current financial year.

According to an official press release the gross collection under the Commercial Taxes Department has reached Rs 5,809.21 crore reflecting an overall growth rate of 19.4 per cent. The announcement follows a review of the Commercial Taxes Department today by the Minister, Ms Gokula Indira.

Totally, 2.24 lakh dealers have filed the returns for May 2011 under TN VAT Act 2006.

The tax growth is of significance to the State, which reported a 10 per cent growth in revenue collections to Rs 24,819 crore in 2009-10 over the previous year. According to official statistics, Commercial Taxes represent 70 per cent of the State's revenue and is key to funding its development and welfare schemes. (The balance revenue is from sources such as State Excise, Stamp Duty and Registration and Motor Vehicle Tax).

The revenue in the first two months are also in line with earlier official estimates of growth in Commercial Taxes in the State.

In the 2010-11, according official figures, as of December 2010, the State's revenue was about Rs 33,558 crore including VAT of Rs 21,008 crore. The Government then estimated that receipts from commercial taxes for 2010-11 would be Rs.30,371 crore. This will grow to Rs 33,394 crores during 2011-2012, officials had said in February following the interim budget presented by the then DMK led Government. Since then there has been a change of guard in the State with the AIADMK Government taking over last month.

Officials had also said following the State shifting to VAT from general sales tax in January 2007, VAT revenues have stabilised contributing to the significant growth in State taxes.

In a separate press release, the Commercial Taxes Department has said the roving squads of the Commercial Taxes Department have been issued mobile electronic devices to speed up checking of documents in goods vehicles.

The officials in the Enforcement Wing have been issued GSM-enabled hand held terminals. Chennai and Coimbatore divisions have been issued 35 units costing Rs 9.25 lakh in the first phase.

The electronic devices are connected to the Central Data Server of the Commercial Taxes Department and and officials will be able to check documents such as TIN number, registered address of the business and buyer-seller location and status of tax returns on the spot. This will bring down the detention time of vehicles and help officials better control tax evasion and protect State Government revenue.

Related Topics