Soon, white paper on pending tax dues: Sudhir Mungantiwar

State finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has claimed that the state government would soon come out with a white paper on the pending tax revenue dues during the Winter session of the Assembly. He made the announcement in the Lower House during the Question Hour on Thursday.

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil had raised a question about the shortfall in the tax revenue. Replying to the question, Mr Mungantiwar said that during the past 10 years, the state government had raised several taxes from time to time and expected the revenue collection to increase. However, the tax revenue never caught up with the estimates of the revenue collected. “The recovery that has been pending for around 10 years amounts to around Rs 59,715.47 crore, while that pending for about five years is around Rs 3,192.44 crore,” the minister said.

While replying to a supplementary over the question, Mr Mungantiwar elaborated on the efforts made to recover the tax dues. Apart from gearing up the follow-up mechanism, a panel of eminent lawyers is being developed to fight out cases in courts to recover the due taxes, Mr Mungantiwar said.

“There are around 84,000 cases where the tax collection has been pending for around five to 10 years. Apart from improving the follow-up mechanism, a panel of eminent lawyers is being developed to fight out cases in courts to recover tax dues. We have now decided to appoint lawyers based on the recovery amount,” the minister added.

While explaining the cases of pending tax revenue, the minister said that tax worth Rs 900 crore has not been recovered from online lottery operators between the years 2006 and 2010. Accordingly, all departments have been put on alert to recover pending tax dues, said the minister.