‘Notes and highway liquor shop ban to hit state revenue’

The demonetisation of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes in November and the shutting down of liquor shops on highways are likely to reduce the state’s revenue from stamp duty registration and excise for 2016-17 by at least Rs5,000 crore, according to finance department officials.

On average, the state earns Rs2.20 lakh crore in revenue every year, of which a major chunk comes from the sales tax, vehicle tax, excise duty, stamp duty and registration . According to official estimates, the state collected Rs9,442 crore from excise duty and Rs16,347 crore from stamp duty and registration for this fiscal till the end of January. The stamp duty and registration target for this fiscal is Rs23,547 crore, while the target for excise duty is Rs15,343 crore. The two departments may record a shortfall of Rs3,000 crore each, claim officials. The government has allocated 17% of the expected revenue for development works. A drop in collection would mean the state may not be able to give enough funds for development.

“The monthly revenue collected by the stamp duty and registration department was Rs1,297 crore in November, Rs1,769 crore in December and Rs1,426 crore in January, lower than the monthly average of Rs1,900 crore,” said an official from the department.

The excise department has been hit by both demonetisation as well as SC curb on liquor shops within 500m from highways. “Many of them started shifting or closing down their shops after the court order in December. The cash crunch hit the sales further,” said an excise official.

“The excise duty collected in October 2016 was Rs1,033 crore, higher than Rs969 crore collected in October 2015. The revenue collection dropped in November to Rs1,027 crore. It was Rs1,024 crore in November 2015. The collection was Rs1,121 crore in December last year, lower than the Rs1,138 crore in December 2015,” the officer said. Rupesh Keer of NGO Samarthan said, “The revenue from the real estate sector will reduce by about 40% this year. The overall deficit, if government spends it entire budgetary allocation, may pass Rs15,000 crore.”