SHILLONG: Petroleum products and IMFL have helped drown the Meghalaya Government’s revenue sorrows following the NGT ban on coal to some extent by contributing handsomely to the state exchequer over the past couple of years.
Officials from the Taxation and Excise department informed that the state had registered a steady revenue growth of 30 per cent from VAT on IMFL products and this year has been no different.
An official informed that the State Government earned VAT of around Rs 300 crores from petroleum products this year while that from IMFL is around Rs 150 crores.
Admitting that maintaining the growth is a tough challenge, officials added that the Government is doing everything possible to increase the revenue.
“Earlier, it used to take 2-3 weeks for processing papers for opening a wine shop, but now the department is doing it within 3-4 days,” the official said.
Informing that IMFL brands like Officers Choice and McDowell commanded 80 per cent of the market in Shillong, he added that these were earlier being sold here at higher prices than Guwahati, but after the Government took up the matter with the companies they reduced the prices.
“ We will ensure that they don’t sell these products to us at rates higher than in Assam,” the official said while adding that the department is hoping to earn a revenue of around Rs 220 crores this year.
On the other hand, the total collection of revenue in both GST and non-GST sector has increased to around Rs 1500 crores from Rs 500-600 crores a few years back.
