SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Government has constituted a task force panel to recommend mechanisms to enhance revenue collection of the State, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said on Monday while replying to a question raised by UDP legislator Paul Lyngdoh.
Lyngdoh wanted to know whether the state government has been able to put in place a strong surveillance to check revenue loss due to leakage in collection of Sales Tax in the State.
Sangma informed that all the integrated check gates will be put under CCTV surveillance to prevent leakage of revenue.
The chief minister asserted that no specific case of leakage in collection of tax had come to the notice of the government; besides, there was no indication of any nexus between tax officials and tax evaders.
“These CCTV will be help in monitoring what is happening in the check gates,” he said adding the task force has been asked to suggest some methodology to improve tax realization.
The chief minister informed that necessary instruction have been given to start the process of land identification for setting up of integrated check gates. The government is contemplating to set up these integrated check gates at the entry and exit points proposed to be set up across the state.
The UDP legislator expressed concern on the leakage taking place at the district level and wanted to know whether the Government was contemplating steps to deal with the situation.
The chief minster assured that the Task Force has been asked to look into the matter and come up with recommendations for action to be taken by the revenue earning departments.
When Lyngdoh pointed out that a number of states had come up with legislations like the Revenue Leakage Control Act, the chief minister said that the matter relating to formulation of a strong legislation to address this concern has already been flagged with the task force.
“They are working on comprehensive measures which will be made available in the form of recommendations and the government will look into the recommendations and implement them as we have done in the past,” Sangma said.
The chief minister further informed that one of the measures adopted by the state government was the Mission Mode Project for computerization of Commercial Taxes with e-services.
