Amaravati, April 21: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the officials to pay special attention towards introducing state-of-the-art technology in policy implementation in revenue generating departments to improve efficiency and render improvised services in full transparency to the tax payers.
At a review meeting on revenue generating departments held here on Friday, the Chief Minister said modern technology would help reduce human involvement in the implementation of policies and asked the officials to conduct a study on using technology and submit a detailed report in the next review.
Implementation of appropriate policies would help plug leakages and extend improvised services to the tax payers besides enhancing the revenue, he said and directed them to pay special attention towards the subject. All departments should improve their functioning by the next review, he said.
He stressed the need to display prominently the contact phone numbers of responsible officials at all Mandal, Town Planning, Stamps and Registrations offices and Village and Ward Secretariats for extending all civic services to the people in transparency. The ACB (Anti Corruption Bureau) officials also should be active promptly responding to complaints from the tax payers, he suggested.
The Chief Minister also asked the officials to take special steps to curb the use and distribution of drugs among the youth by displaying awareness hoardings with toll free numbers at Universities and Colleges. Special programmes including mock-drills for preventing drugs abuse should be implemented at least twice in a month, he told the officials.
Explaining that the State is better placed than Karnataka and Maharashtra in tax collection showing a growth of 25.29 per cent, officials told the Chief Minister that it has achieved the target up to 93.24 per cent by collecting total taxes of Rs. 51,481crores in the last fiscal while fixing the target at Rs. 60,191crore for 2023-24.
They said targets are being reached by efficient use of data analytics and introducing automation through excellent coordination between various revenue generating departments while keeping an eye tax evaders.
The revenue earned by the Stamps and Registrations Department has gone up to Rs. 8071crores in 2022-23 from Rs.4725 crore in 2018-19, they said, adding that the Mines and Geology department has earned a revenue of Rs.4,756crore exceeding the target of Rs. 4500crore in 2022-23 and recording a growth of 26 per cent compared to last fiscal.
Officials of the Transport Department told the Chief Minister that they have achieved revenue of Rs. 4294.12crore reaching the target up to 95.42 per cent in 2022-23 while the target for the present fiscal is Rs.6999.42crore.
Deputy Chief Minister K. Narayana Swamy, Energy and Forest Minister P. Ramachandra Reddy, Revenue Minister D. Prasada Rao, Special Chief Secretaries Dr Rajat Bhargava (Excise, Registration and Stamps), Neerabh Kumar Prasad ( Environment Forest Science & Technology), Principal Secretaries Gopalakrishna Dwivedi (Mines and Geology), Syamala Rao (Higher Education), Harish Kumar Gupta (Home), Transport Secretary Pradyumna, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Y. Madhusudhana Reddy, Commercial Taxes Secretary Guljar, Transport Commissioner MK Sinha, Municipal Administration Commissioner Koteswara Rao, Stamps and Registrations Commissioner Ramakrishna, Sales Tax Commissioner Abhishitk Kishore, Additional DGs N.Sanjay, Ravishankar Ayyannar, AP Beverages Corporation MD Vasudeva Reddy, Mines Director VG Venkata Reddy and other officials were present.
