Amid severe financial crisis, Kerala's revenue recovery dues total Rs 3,032 Cr

Alappuzha: Despite facing a severe economic crisis, the state is significantly lagging in revenue recovery, resulting in arrears totalling Rs 3,032 crore.

As a result, the revenue secretary has instructed district collectors to take strict action, warning them that further steps will be taken if arrear collection is not expedited.

In response, the authorities have taken measures such as freezing bank transactions of defaulters. In districts like Kollam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Ernakulam, and Kasaragod, several bank accounts have been frozen. 

The arrears involve various departments, including GST, Excise, Transport, Law, and Labor in the state. Meanwhile, of the total arrears, Rs 1,150 crore is owed by those who received temporary stay orders from the court. However, many of these stay orders have expired. Revenue officials have failed to track these developments, allowing the arrears to accumulate, a lapse that was identified by the revenue secretary. The current directive is to thoroughly review each case and recover as much as possible.

The state GST department is expected to recover the largest share, amounting to Rs 1,512.7 crore, which relates to dues from 9,509 individuals who failed to pay sales tax before the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 2017. Another Rs 1,363 crore needs to be collected from 9,955 individuals across sectors such as industry, education, civil supplies, and labour.

The Excise department is due to recover Rs 39.44 crore from 118 individuals involved in liquor tax arrears. The Transport Department is also set to collect Rs 65.06 crore from 23,758 individuals for vehicle tax arrears, while Rs 51.65 crore is to be collected from 6,683 individuals for failing to pay court fines.