Deputy CM directs Excise dept. officials to identify and plug revenue leakages

Deputy Chief Minister focuses on enhancing revenue, addressing land sales, and improving government land protection and construction permit processes.

Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has directed the Excise department officials to identify and rectify revenue leakages in the department so that its income can be enhanced.

The Deputy Chief Minister said although good progress was achieved in the sale of apartments and flats, the expected momentum was lacking in the sale of agriculture lands and open plots. He wanted the officials concerned to analyse the situation and take appropriate action.

Mr. Bhatti Vikramarka chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Sub Committee on resource mobilisation on Monday. Cabinet sub committee members N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, D. Sridhar Babu and Jupally Krishna Rao were present in the meeting attended by senior officials led by Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao.

The Cabinet panel expressed satisfaction over the 6% growth achieved by the Commercial Taxes department at the end of the previous financial year as compared to 2023-24 describing it as a positive development. The department set a target of ₹600 crore through CST and VAT in March and realised ₹500 crore. “There is a need for a well-structured plan moving forward,” he said.

The Cabinet panel members wanted the newly introduced Automatic Number Plate Recognition system to be widely implemented across various departments enabling conduct of large scale inspections. The Tribal Welfare department was directed to ensure that sand sales in tribal areas were conducted through tribal societies by identifying and enrolling genuine beneficiaries as members. The effort was to ensure that genuine tribals received the income through sand sales in the agency areas.

The Ministers instructed Revenue department officials to identify valuable government lands in district headquarters and take steps to protect them. The HMDA was advised to expedite the process for issuing construction permits.