Centre owes Telangana ₹4,000 crore in GST compensation dues: Officials tell CM Revanth Reddy.
In a review meeting chaired by Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, officials pointed to pending dues from Union government as reason for revenue shortfall. Officials informed Revanth Reddy that ₹4,000 crore in GST compensation dues were yet to be released by the Union government to Telangana.
Incidentally, Revanth Reddy-led Congress government in Telangana was the only ruling dispensation among all Southern state governments that did not join the chorus for fiscal federalism and South tax movement recently. While Karnataka and Kerala staged a protest in Delhi, Tamil Nadu showed solidarity and Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy too spoke about fiscal injustice in the state legislative assembly.
In a major relief to the middle and lower-middle classes, the Telangana government has decided to regularise unapproved layouts.
The decision is expected to benefit about 20 lakh people. The deadline for applying for regularisation is 31 March.
The Layout Regularisation Scheme of 2020, under which one could regularise one’s unauthorised plots, is however not applicable to endowments, Wakf lands, and lands under litigation in court.
The layouts that can be regularised are those parcels of land that were subdivided into plots without permission from the competent authority — such as municipal corporations, municipalities, urban development authorities, metropolitan development authorities, and the director of town and country planning, as the case may be.
The unauthorised illegal layouts would also include tentative layouts approved by the municipal corporation, municipalities, urban development authorities, and metropolitan development authorities where plots were sold without obtaining final layout approval.
Gram Panchayat layouts created without prior approval from the director of town and country planning, urban development authorities, and metropolitan development authority can also be regularised.
Stress on revenue realisation
The chief minister said he found out that there was a huge gap between the target and the actual realisation of commercial taxes.
The officials informed him that the state was to get ₹4,000 crore from the Centre as GST compensation, but the amount did not come, which led to a shortfall in revenue.
Turning his attention to the requirements of the revenue generation departments, he ordered that they should have buildings of their own and called for proposals to be submitted immediately.
He directed the officials to shift to the empty government buildings in Hyderabad and elsewhere in the state for the time being.
The chief minister said that there was a need to frame a new policy for the sale of sand. He added that the vehicles that transport sand should have GPS trackers, and each one should invariably have waybills.
Revanth asked the official not to allow the illegal transport of sand under any circumstances. He asked the officials to collect the fines imposed on those who were in the business of quarrying.
He also recalled the imposition of huge fines and wanted the officials to collect them immediately.
The chief minister also demanded an explanation from the officials on why the fines imposed on some quarries had later been reduced.
He directed that some officials who had been continuing in their posts for years be shifted immediately.
Those who attended the review meeting included Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramraka, Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, and Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari.