TS falters on report to 15th finance panel
The TS government has failed to submit the report to the 15th Finance Commission in time. The Finance Commission had asked the state government to submit the report on the performance of several departments by the end of June 2018. But till today the Government has not been able to submit the report due to certain departments not sending the inputs to prepare the document.
Principal secretary of Finance Department Mr. K Rama Krishna Rao recently held a meeting with all departments and asked them to send the inputs at the earliest. According to officials Panchayat Raj, municipal administration, energy and other departments have to submit their inputs. They said that they will send the report to the Finance Commission soon.
The Finance Commission sent a note to the TS government asking it to submit a report based on the points raised by it. The Commission asked on prevailing rates of stamp duties, registration fee on important items like conveyance deed and arrangements for checking the under-valuation of properties for the evasion of stamp duty.
It also asked the impact of introduction of GST on the revenue of the State, month wise and year wise compensation due and received and its impact on State finances.
It also asked for the rates on petroleum products like petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas year wise from 2010 to 2018 and the yearly collection.
Regarding State excise duties the Financed Commission asked about the present excise policy and changes during the last five years with financial implication, State excise duties in the present system under which excise revenue is collected and also prevailing taxation on motor vehicles, taxes on goods including road toll.
Regarding the power sector, the Finance Commission asked the comparative statement of the award given by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) and the actual implementation, present status of unbundling of power utilities and improvement of governance through State load dispatch centres, subsidy provided by State Government to power utilities, the method of estimating the transmission and distribution losses, measures taken to minimize the losses and anti theft measures.
According to officials Panchayat Raj, municipal administration, energy and other departments have to submit their inputs. They said that they will send the report to Finance Commission soon.