CS Somesh Kumar Meets Commercial Tax Department

Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar today held a meeting with the officials of the state's commercial taxes department, and asked them to focus on restarting the revenue drive in the state.

Addressing the officials at the meeting, which was held at the Professor Jayashankar University Auditorium in Rajendranagar, he also asked them to "rededicate" themselves to the task of revenue realisation during the next 45 days to achieve the state's desired revenue targets.

Kumar said that 460 teams with 1,376 personnel had been constituted throughout the state in this regard.

The CS also complimented the tax department for being at the forefront of technological and organisational innovation in its field.

"The commercial taxes department in our state is flourishing. It has been reorganised twice. Two additional divisions, 18 circles, and 161 new posts were created to improve its efficiency. This shows that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao saw the potential in the officials of the department, and wanted to support it by bringing in important changes to bolster it. The department is the builder of the state. I am very pleased to see all that has been achieved by it in the last four years," he said.

"I hope the workers and officials of the department will show the same commitment to the upcoming revenue drive as they have to their work in the past, and will help the state meet its revenue targets," the CS added.

Commercial Tax Commissioner Neetu Kumari Prasad and several other senior officials of the department were also present at the meeting.

The Telangana government has been rather worried about the state of its revenues for the current fiscal year, which ends in March, as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The CM had also expressed his concerns on the matter in November, and had said that the state's revenues would likely see a decrease of Rs 52,750 crore this financial year due to the pandemic. However, he had assured the people of the state that this decrease would in no way impact the government's welfare schemes.