CM tells all depts to meet revenue targets as current fiscal nears end

Lucknow: Back from his four-day Singapore and Japan tour, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday directed all departments to increase their efforts to realise their revenue targets for the current financial year.During a review meet of the tax and non-tax revenue up to the end of Feb for the current financial year, CM was told that against the annual tax revenue target of Rs 2,95,000 crore, Rs 1,96,177 crore was collected so far.
The target for state tax is Rs 1,75,725 crore, against which Rs 1,03,770 crore was collected so far. This includes Rs 75,195 crore under GST and Rs 28,575 crore under VAT. The state tax department said significant improvement in tax compliance was achieved through efforts such as GST 2.0, AI-based risk analysis, large-scale scrutiny, e-invoicing, and effective monitoring of e-way bills. It reported that its key achievements were inspection of 1.59 lakh taxpayers through AI-based systems, control over fake input tax credit and recovery of Rs 3,117 crore. Against its target of Rs 63,000 crore for 2025-26, the excise department collected only Rs 48,501 crore. This, however, is 13.2% more than the previous year. The department presented a roadmap for additional collection of approximately Rs 9,050 crore in March through a consumption-based strategy, shop renewals, licence fees and wholesale and brand renewal processes. The department said it hopes to reach approximately Rs 57,550 crore by the end of this fiscal. The stamp and registration department recorded a collection of Rs 29,487 crore against target of Rs 38,150 crore. The department also presented details of potential revenue from upcoming residential and commercial projects of development authorities, including Yamuna Expressway, Greater Noida, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Gorakhpur and Varanasi. The transport department collected Rs 11,005 crore against a target of Rs 14,000 crore. The department said it witnessed improvement in vehicle registration, better tax payment systems, technology-based monitoring and strengthening of enforcement actions. The land revenue and energy departments jointly reported a collection of Rs 3,414 crore, which is 12.6% more than the same period in the previous year.Highlighting the importance of higher revenue for the state's development, Yogi directed the excise department to exercise special vigilance during Holi and to prevent any kind of production and sale of illegal and poisonous liquor. He sought information from the stamp and registration department on the progress of land record digitisation and asked it to accelerate the modernisation of registry offices. Yogi also asked the transport department to ensure the fitness of its buses, prepare a concrete action plan to reduce road accidents and provide better transport services .