PATNA: The state netted Rs 9,906.69 crore from its four major revenue yielding departments during the 2010-11 fiscal that ended on March 31 this year. The total amount that went into the state`s coffers during the period is more than the last fiscal, as the revenue earning of the respective departments registered an increase over the 2009-10 fiscal.
This transpired during the review of the revenue collection exercise of the departments that deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi conducted here on Friday. The four major revenue yielding departments of the state are registration, transport, excise and prohibition, and commercial taxes.
However, the revenue collected by the excise and prohibition department during 2010-11 showed that the increase was highest, 40.38 per cent over the revenue collected during the immediate previous fiscal compared to the three other departments. During the last fiscal, the number of licensed outlets selling foreign and country liquor in the state was 5,214. Now, it has been decided not to increase the number of such outlets. Rather, the decision has been taken to keep the number fixed at that.
The new move follows the directive made in this regard by CM Nitish Kumar. Incidentally, during the budget session of the state assembly this year, members of the House, cutting across political parties, including opposition and treasury benches, had expressed serious concern over the unhealthy impact that the opening of liquor outlets across the state had caused on society, including on school and college going youths, due to increased consumption of foreign and country liquor.
As a matter of fact, energy minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav, while giving government`s reply on the matter, had cited statistics regarding consumption of liquor both on the international and national panorama. He showed that the per capita consumption of liquor in Bihar was far less than not only the national average, but also what existed in other states, including Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. Nonetheless, the CM, later, decided to keep the number of licensed liquor outlets fixed at 5,214. During the review meeting on Friday, officials of the excise and prohibition department told Modi that the number would not be increased for the next few years as per the decision of the CM.
This department netted Rs 1,542.25 crore during the 2010-11 fiscal. Similarly, revenue collection by the commercial taxes department during the same period was over Rs 6,673 crore, which was an increase by 20.62 per cent over the sum collected in the previous fiscal. On the other hand, the revenue collected by the transport department was a little over Rs 444 crore — an increase of 19.10 per cent. Finally, the collections made by the registration department was over Rs 1,246 crore.
Modi fixed new revenue targets for the three departments other than excise and prohibition department for the current fiscal — Rs 8,700 crore for the commercial taxes department, Rs 550 crore for the transport department, and Rs 1,600 crore for the registration department.