Encouraged by a healthy jump in tax revenue collection in the 2011-12 financial year, the state government is eyeing a 27.92-per cent increase in its tax revenue collection during the 2012-13 fiscal.

According to official figures, the tax revenue collection in Bihar during 2011-12 stood at Rs 12,691.40 crore, which was 28.59 per cent more than the corresponding figures a year earlier.

The growth in tax revenue in the past six years has been commendable when one compares the figures of 2011-12 with that of 2005-06. Tax revenue figures during the 2005-06 financial year stood at Rs 3,561.10 crore.

The government has also set targets for its key tax revenue departments — commercial taxes, registration, excise and transport — to maintain the tempo by achieving the desired growth in the current fiscal.

In case of commercial taxes department, the government has set a target to collect Rs 10,500 crore as tax during 2012-13. In 2011-12, the depar-tment had collected Rs 8,457.73 crore.

The registration department has been asked to generate Rs 1,906 crore in the current fiscal. In the previous fiscal, the department had generated a revenue of Rs 1,610.36 crore, which was 29.62 per cent more than what the department had generated as tax revenue a year earlier.

The excise department has been given the target of generating Rs 2,715 crore as revenue in the current fiscal as against its collection of Rs 2,045 crore in 2011-12.

The transport department, also, has been asked to increase its revenue collection from Rs 560 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 644.40 crore in 2012-13.

While reviewing the performance of the revenue generating department recently, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi directed the officials to chalk out an action plan for achieving the targets that have been set for them.

Modi also directed the heads of the excise and registration departments to send a team of officials to Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and other south Indian states to study the systems that are being adopted there and present a study report so that nece- ssary steps could be taken for increasing revenue collection in Bihar.

During the course of the meeting, a suggestion was floated to do away with the present system of rates of land at a fixed interval. It was suggested that a system should be introduced, which would allow revision of rates anytime during a year depending on the developments taking place around land like construction of national and state highways and increase in commercial activities.

The suggestion was floated with an eye on increasing the revenue collection through registration charges. As things stand now, rate revision of land is done once a year in urban areas and once in every two years in rural areas.

Sources said though no final decision was taken on the issue, the government might consider the proposal.

Commenting on the performance of revenue generating departments and targets that have been set for them, a senior bureaucrat, who is closely associated with issues related to finances, said, “Though the state’s perfor-mance may appear bright in terms of revenue generation when compared to past performances, Bihar still has a long way to go to join the league of developed states that generate very high revenue through their internal resources.”

“Bihar is basically a consuming state. Any turnaround in revenue collection would take place only if industrialization takes place,” he added.