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
March 6,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 6: All the arrested in a case of sedition filed over a school play in Karnataka's Bidar have been granted anticipatory bail by a court that said the case lacked enough basis.

The play, themed on protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), "has not caused any disharmony in the society", said the district and sessions court in Bidar.

The play, performed in January by the children of prestigious Shaheen School, landed in trouble when a sedition complaint was filed over an 11-year-old girl's lines - enacting an elderly woman, she said if anyone asked for documents she would hit them with slippers.

That led to a sedition case and the police questioning children, teachers and the school management over many rounds.

"The drama has not caused any disharmony in the society. Considering all the circumstances, I am of the opinion that the ingredients of Section 124A of IPC (Sedition) are prima facie lacking," said the court.

Five members of the school management team have been granted protection from arrest. Earlier, the head teacher and the mother of the student who spoke the dialogue were sent to custody, but on other charges including the abetment of an offence. They were not accused of sedition. They were later granted bail.

The repeated questioning of young students and the arrest of the widowed mother of a student caused a huge uproar in the town.

An order is expected soon on the bail application in another sedition case in Karnataka, against three Kashmiri students. The students, who were studying in Hubbali in north Karnataka, are facing charges for reportedly using pro-Pakistani slogans in an online post. The Hubbali Bar Association had asked its members not to represent the students. Lawyers from Bengaluru who went to Hubbali represent the students were heckled.

On Thursday, a team of lawyers from different districts again went to Hubballi and were provided police protection. BT Venkatesh, one of the lawyers, said he had a meeting with bar association members and that the matter was sorted out. The students have applied for bail and an order is expected next week.

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News Network
June 18,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 18: The Karnataka police has arrested a German national wanted for kidnapping and causing bodily harm to a person in his home country, an official said on Wednesday. The person was also found to be overstaying on an expired visa, which police said that it appeared that the visa had been tampered with to look more current.

"On receipt of credible information by the CID Interpol Division officers, the Red Corner Notice subject, the German national Alexander Bruno Wehnelt, was traced at Hulimangala village," a police official told media persons.

Hulimangala is on the outskirts of Bengaluru city.

Alexander, 55, escaped from Germany and took shelter in Bengaluru.

The Interpol Division of CBI NCB (Central Bureau of Intelligence, Narcotics Control Bureau) in New Delhi had communicated to the Interpol liaison officer in Karnataka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) about Alexander, directing extensive search measures to trace the criminal at large.

The Narcotics Control Bureau of Wiesbaden in Germany was on the hunt for Wehnelt for the crimes he committed in 2015, and have finally found him five years later.

"A special team of officers was constituted by the CID - Interpol division under the supervision of ADGP (Additional Director General of Police) B. Dayananda and the Interpol liaison officer and efforts were made to trace the subject," said the official.

On Monday, the police received credible information leading to his arrest.

"It was learnt that his visa had expired in 2016 and he tried to show a visa which was issued in December 2019 which had expired on Saturday, June 13," said the official.

Prima facie, it appeared that Alexander had tampered with his visa and the police are probing on that front as well.

He was handed over to Hebbagodi Police Station in Bengaluru Urban, for his overstay and a criminal case has been registered against him, under the Foreigners Act.

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News Network
July 19,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 19: A viral video claiming to show crowded condition of a hospital treating COVID-19 patients in the city was found to be false with police on Sunday arresting a person for allegedly circulating it on social media.

Police said such videos have the potential to create panic and asked people to refrain from spreading them.

The arrest was made within hours of the police announcing registration of a case in connection with the video that showed a crowd of people wearing masks at an "outpatient ward" of a hospital, falsely identified as Victoria Hospital, a major dedicated COVID facility here.

The video went viral on social media.

"City Crime Branch swiftly identified and arrested this person who has been circulating false videos of panic in Victoria Hospital, Bangalore. Kudos to all doctors and medical professionals who are doing their best. False news busted," Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao tweeted.

Police said such videos have the potential to create panic in society and asked people to refrain from it.

"Covid False video about conditions of hospitals in Bangalore circulated on social media. Case registered in Cybercrime PS. While government, society at large fighting the pandemic, some are creating/forwarding messages/videos which has potential to create panic in society. Refrain from it," Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime, Sandeep Patil tweeted.

The video showed scores of people wearing masks gathered in a small space allegedly at an Out-Patient Department in a hospital, and a person filming it, claiming to be a doctor expressing concern that it was a threat to all medical staff, including the patients.

Official sources said the video was reportedly from a hospital in one of the northern states and not from Victoria Hospital.

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