Karnataka fears massive revenue loss after currency chaos

November 16, 2016

Bengaluru, Nov 16: The Centre's move to demonetize high value currency notes threatens to derail Karnataka's revenue collection this financial year. Officials fear that the state might miss its revenue target by at least Rs 5,000-Rs 15,000 crore for the current fiscal. The move has already affected liquor sales, property transactions, and sale of new and used vehicles.

Untitled-1"We are still assessing the impact and will get a clear picture by the weekend. We are certainly expecting some impact,'' said ISN Prasad, additional chief secretary, state finance department. "The government's revenues have taken a severe beating following the demonetization move. Whatever taxes were supposed to come to the state, including commercial taxes, sales taxes and all the revenues have been hampered. It will certainly have a huge impact on this fiscal's tax collection," said another finance department official.

The government's excise department has been the worst hit. The sale of foreign liquor has come down drastically in the past few days. A senior excise department official said: "Most of the excise revenue come from the sale of Indian Manufactured Foreign Liquor. Officials at government outlets have claimed that the sale has gone down by at least 50%."

The government had fixed an ambitious revenue target of Rs 16,510 crore for the excise department this year following a 25% hike in taxes on liquor. The government has collected only about Rs 7,500 crore so far. "People have stopped buying liquor, especially the expensive ones, due to shortage of high-value currency," added the official.

The revenue target for the stamps and registration department had been fixed at a higher Rs 9,100 crore for the current fiscal. Most of this amount comes from revenue layouts through stamp duty and property registration, which has completely stopped since November 8. "Bengaluru is a big market for secondary real estate, which traditionally works on 60:40 white and black money ratio. Ban on transaction of black money has badly hit property registration," said a senior official of the stamps and registration department.

Comments

Althaf
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Nov 2016

Not only in karnataka All over india it will effect.

Skazi
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Nov 2016

let the Govt reduce the Value of lands for registration purposes... then the govt will get back the revenues.... as the buyers will come forward in the real estate business .....
The govt does not apply its mind while fixing the land values ... It goes by survey no.... whether the site has road connection or not,, the govt value is same for all sites ....

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News Network
July 31,2020

Bengaluru, July 31: Denying irregularities in covid-19 equipment purchase by the Karnataka government, the state unit of the BJP has issued legal notices to Congress leaders Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar demanding that they apologize or face a defamation suit. 

The notices seek a public apology for the allegations levelled against the government on irregularities in the procurement of Covid-19 equipment and supplies. 

Both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, the Karnataka Congress president, have been doggedly pursuing allegations of corruption against the BJP government and have demanded a judicial inquiry. 

BJP general secretary N Ravi Kumar said that while the Congress leaders claimed that Rs 4,157 crore was spent during Covid-19, they also allege that the government has not responded to any of the 20 letters written by them. "If the government has not provided any answer to the Opposition, where did they get the figures from," he said.

None of the allegations of corruption is specific and the statements made are factually incorrect. "These statements, without any basis, have been issued calculatedly to lower the image and damage the reputation of the government, the Bharatiya Janata Party, representatives of the party and the ministers in the government," the notice issued on behalf of Ravi Kumar read.

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May 23,2020

Udupi, May 23: Five more persons tested positive for coronavirus in the coastal district of Udupi today. 

They include three men aged 37, 55, 31 and two women aged 48 and 34. 

Among them four are returnees from Mumbai and one is foreign returnee.

With this the total number of covid-19 cases in the district rose to 55.

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Agencies
February 23,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 23: Bolstered by the Supreme Court's interim nod for the gazette notification of the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal award by the Central government, Karnataka decided to allot funds for the drinking water project in the state's northwest region, an official said on Saturday.

"Funds will be allotted in the state budget for fiscal 2020-21 to complete the Kalasa-Banduri project across the Mahadayi river for supplying drinking water to the four drought-prone northern districts in the state," the official of the water resources department told media on anonymity.

As Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa also holds the finance portfolio, he has agreed to allocate funds for the project, held up for years in the legal battle with the neighbouring Goa and Maharashtra over the sharing of the river water among the three coastal states.

Yediyurappa is slated to present the state budget for the ensuing fiscal in the legislative assembly on March 2.

"We will resume the project work once the Centre notifies the award though it will be binding on the final outcome of the apex court's hearing the review petitions of Goa and Maharashtra against the Tribunal award," the official noted.

A division bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Hemant Gupta on Thursday passed an interim order on the Tribunal award, allowing the central water resources ministry to notify it for implementation and posted the case for final hearing in July.

The Tribunal on August 14, 2018 allocated 13.42 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of the river water to the southern state for irrigation and drinking water supply to towns and villages across Bagalkot, Belagavi, Dharwad and Gadag districts, which are in the arid region of the Deccan plateau.

The four districts are about 400-550 km northwest of Bengaluru in the southern state.

Of the 13.42 tmcft water, 5.5 tmcft will be used in the river basin and for diversion into the depleted Malaprabha reservoir while the balance 7.92 tmcft will be utilized for hydel power generation instead of allowing the water to go into the Arabian Sea on the state's west coast through Goa.

Goa, which opposed Karnataka's demand for 36.66 tmcft, was allocated 24 tmcft, while Maharashtra got 1.3 tmcft.

The Tribunal assessed that 188.06 tmc feet water is available at 75 per cent dependability.

The three-member Tribunal is headed by Chairman Justice J.M. Panchal, Justice Viney Mittal and Justice P.S. Naayana.

The Union government had set up the inter-state Tribunal on November 16, 2010 for the djudication of the Mahadayi basin water allocation among the three riparian and contiguous states.

Goa and Maharashtra claimed 122.6 tmc feet and 6.35 tmc feet of the river water respectively.

The Tribunal, which commenced sittings on September 6, 2012, held 1,209 sittings for over 6 years.

Supreme Court senior counsel F.S. Nariman represented the state before the Tribunal to present its case.

The Tribunal's chairman and two members inspected the river basin area across the three coastal states from December 12-24, 2013.

The 77km-long Mahadayi or Mandovi river originates at Bhimgad in the Western Ghats in Belagavi district and flows into the neighbouring Goa through Maharashtra and joins the Arabian Sea off the west coast.

Though the river flows 29 km in Karnataka and 52 km in Goa, its catchment area is spread over 2,032 km in the southern state as against 1,580 km in the western state (Goa).

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