Gulati Institute of Finance and (GIFT), a State Government-funded think tank, has urged the government to overhaul the land fair-value assessment system and hike electricity duty as measures to increase its revenue.
The state government had asked the agency early this year to make suggestions to improve the states revenue. The suggestions, touted as the ones that would ignite little public wrath, have appeared in elaborate form as articles in the latest edition ofKerala economy, a journal published by the institute.
Narayana claims the failure by the state in adopting modern methods for fixing fair value of land has led to a situation wherein the revenue from stamp duty and registration has slipped to 6.76% of the states own taxes and duties in 2020-2021, from 12% till 2010. It recommended the government to use remote sensing and GIS tools to continuously revise the land fair value in accordance with the market value of the land. Though the technology upgrade would require substantial Investment, phenomenal revenue increase would justify the same, he argues.
Even a small increment in duty for the domestic consumer category would bring large-scale revenue benefits. The domestic consumers alone would have contributed an additional revenue of Rs 2,349 crore in 2018-19 period if the electricity duty collected in the state were on par with that levied in Punjab andMaharashtra, said the report.
Kerala was one among the few states that dont charge electricity duty for RAILWAY traction. Since several other states collect electricity duty from railways, Kerala should also collect the same. The 10% duty on electricity consumption introduced in 1969 remains unchanged and hence a revision in the duty would be very much justifiable, the report argues.