UP eyeing 80% tax collection electronically

E-payment at Rs 750 cr/month.

Uttar Pradesh, which had introduced e-payment of commercial tax only last year, is targetting collection of almost 80 per cent of the tax electronically this financial year.

At present, the commercial tax collections stand at about Rs 750 crore through e-payment every month, which is 40 per cent of total revenue.

“We are confident that our e-payment of commercial tax in UP would breach 80 per cent mark this year,” Uttar Pradesh Commercial and Entertainment Tax Principal Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra told Business Standard.

This financial year, the department is targetting Rs 26,825 crore of tax revenue, which would be an increase of about 29 per cent over last year’s collection of Rs 20,668 crore. During 2008-09, the department had collected Rs 17,404 crore.

During 2009-10, commercial tax e-payment had accounted for 20 per cent of revenue.

Meanwhile, the commercial tax department today tied up with Union Bank for e-payment facility. The state’s Commercial Tax Minister Nakul Dubey launched the facility here.

State Bank of India (SBI), Allahabad Bank, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank were already offering this facility in the state. “We are in talks with four more public sector banks to offer e-payment facility and in the next two months, they would also come on board,” Mishra informed.

During the first six months of 2009-10, the commercial tax collection had stood at Rs 10,700 crore, which is considered robust in the first-half of a financial year. “The tax revenue goes up in the second-half of the financial year,” Uttar Pradesh Commercial Tax Commissioner Chandra Bhanu said.

The commercial tax department accounts for over 60 per cent of the state’s total revenues annually. Earlier, the department had constituted a Task Force for checking tax evasion and better tax administration in the National Capital Region (NCR) zones.

The state had introduced Value Added Tax in January 2008 and since its implementation, tax collection has improved. Under the proposed Goods and Service Tax regime, the tax collection is likely to further shoot up, since Uttar Pradesh is basically a consumer state.