Thiruvananthapuram: At a time when the Kerala government feels its employees are morally bound to contribute to the reconstruction efforts after the August deluge, here is a piece of information that could rankle the conscience of the government.
The revenue arrears the state has accumulated till March 31, 2017, according to the figures furnished by both the Comptroller and Auditor General and the state's economics and statistics department, is nearly Rs 15,000 crore. This is close to 40 per cent of the Rs 40,000 crore the state now says it requires for rebuilding Kerala.
Of course, some of this is caught up in legal and other disputes. But such disputed money is not more than Rs 4500 crore, meaning at least Rs 10,000 crore could be easily mobilised if only the government puts to use the most powerful tool it has at its command: political will.
However, the government was quick to issue an order on September 11 asking all government employees to give one month's salary to the chief minister's disaster relief fund. Those not willing to contribute will have to sign a one-line declaration, and provide their name and address.
Revenue arrears have mounted mainly because of two reasons: ineffective implementation of the system for the realisation of arrears of revenue such as prompt reporting of arrears to revenue department, and poor departmental follow-up or the lethargy of babudom to go after the defaulters. Of the uncollected amount of nearly Rs 15,000 crore, over Rs 6000 crore has been pending for over five years, a reminder that the administrative failure in collecting taxes has a long history.
Weakest mobilisers
Besides the goods and services tax department, motor vehicles, forest, excise, and police departments have been found to be the most lax in collecting arrears. The GST department has run up arrears of nearly Rs 9,000 crore. Within this, Rs 667 crore is from central PSUs, and Rs 497.38 crore from state PSUs. Top department sources attribute the delay to court stays on recovery proceedings. Fact is, only Rs 3,352.69 crore (38.16 per cent) of a total of Rs 8,785.55 crore were covered under judicial intervention.
The motor vehicles department, which finance minister Thomas Isaac banks on to cushion the ambitious Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), is responsible for the largest arrears after the GST department. It has failed to collect over Rs 1,770 crore. The biggest defaulter is KSRTC, Rs 1,443 crore. The remaining money has to come from individuals, private firms and private companies. Only a small amount, less than Rs 10 lakh, is caught up in legal tangles.
The nature of demand in the forest department, which has failed to collect arrears totalling nearly Rs 340 crore, includes value of timber, teak stumps, lease rent, penal interest, re-auction loss, and centage charges. The department is yet to receive Rs 57.35 crore from Central PSUs, Rs 243.60 crore from state PSUs, and Rs 13.87 crore from individuals and private companies. More than Rs 170 crore has been pending for the past five years. A forest department source attributed the reason for delay in collecting the revenue to pending revenue recovery steps against the defaulters, court cases, and stay orders.
The 'abkari' arrears in the excise department of Rs 199 crore have been pending from 1952 onwards. The money is due from individuals, private firms, and private companies. Nearly Rs 180 crore has to be realised from 307 persons who have defaulted an amount of Rs 1 lakh or more. Like in the case of the forest department, excise officials too attribute the delay to failure in initiating revenue recovery action and court stays.
As for the police, the default is mostly on account of the cost of police protection services it provides to various public and private bodies. According to figures with the finance department, Rs 122.06 crore is pending from the Centre, Rs 12.96 crore from Central PSUs, Rs 41.98 crore from state PSUs, and Rs 1.09 crore from individuals, private firms and private companies. The major defaulters were Southern Railway, KSEB and Union ministry of home affairs.
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