New Delhi: Inefficiency, under assessment,
irregular claim of tax exemption and other lacunae in revenue
collection system of Delhi Government may have caused a
whopping Rs 3,000 crore loss to the exchequer in 2009-10,
according to the CAG.
Rapping the Government for the shortcomings, the national
auditor said the tax collection would improve significantly if
these deficiencies are addressed.
"Test checks of records of the departments during local
audit conducted during the year 2009-10 revealed under
assessment/short payment/loss of revenue aggregating Rs 3,140
crore in 2,696 cases," the CAG said in its report for the year
ending March 31, 2010.
The CAG said it found under assessment of VAT to the tune
of Rs 2,672 crore while pointing towards several cases of tax
evasion and other irregularities.
"We noticed during the test check of the records of 68
units relating to VAT, an underassessment of tax and other
irregularities involving Rs 2,672 crore in 2579 cases."
The report said the review on levy and collection of
stamp duty and registration fee revealed a "number of system
and compliance deficiencies" which had a total revenue
implication of Rs 467 crore.
About collection of the stamp duty and registration fees,
the auditor said there was no mechanism to ensure that both
the fees are levied on all instruments which are due for
registration as per provision of the laws. On collection of stamp duty and registration fees, the
concerned department has failed to coordinate with various
offices to stop the leakage in tax collection system, the
Comptroller and Auditor General said.
The auditor also asked the government to consider fixing
time frame for finalisation of cases of undervaluation.
The report said application of incorrect rate of tax
resulted in short payment of Rs 10.41 crore, including
interest of Rs 2.82 crore.
It also pointed towards failure of tax department to
recover additional luxury tax and interest which resulted in
short recovery of Rs 12.34 lakh.
As per the report, the fiscal deficit of Delhi has soared
significantly touching nearly Rs 3,550 crore in the financial
year 2009-10 as compared to Rs 245 crore in 2005-06, the CAG
said in its latest report.
The auditor said the fiscal deficit has increased in the
year 2009-10 by 25.70 per cent as compared to the previous
year.
Officials in finance department said the fiscal deficit
has gone up primarily due to increased spending on account of
preparation for the Commonwealth Games.
On revenue generation by the Delhi government in 2009-10,
the auditor said a total of Rs 16,915 crore was collected as
tax revenue while Rs 3,536 crore was given by the Centre.
PTI
