Commonwealth Games fuel Haryana's tax collections

Fueled by an overall industrial growth particularly in the auto and hospitality sector during the recent Commonwealth Games, Haryana's Value Added Tax (VAT) collection and luxury tax registered 27.48% and 106% growth, respectively in first six months this fiscal.

By witnessing buoyancy in revenue collections, the state is now set to cross the targeted revenue collection of Rs14,059 crore by this fiscal end, a senior official of Haryana excise and taxation department said.

VAT collection in the state touched the Rs5,821.92 crore mark till October against a collection of Rs4,567 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal, a senior official said.

"Over 27% growth in VAT collections indicates that the state's industrial sector has come back on track after facing recessionary phase. The growth in VAT revenue has mainly come from the booming automobile sector which has broken several records in terms of sales," he said.

Haryana is a home to well-established automobile companies like Maruti, Hero Honda etc. The state currently produces two third passenger cars, 50% tractors and 60% motor cycles of the total domestic production. 

Riding high on encouraging tax collections, the state is now eyeing crossing VAT collection target of Rs10,500 crore in current fiscal. Last fiscal, the state collected VAT to the tune of Rs 8,100 crore.

Delhi Commonwealth Games played a great role in enhancing tax revenue of the state. The state saw luxury tax collections growing by a whopping 106.33% to Rs26.66 crore compared to mobilisation of 12.92% last fiscal.

"Accommodation provided during Commonwealth games by the state also helped us in raising our luxury tax revenue," he said. The state made a provision of about 8,000 rooms including hotels, guests rooms etc for Commonwealth Games.

Collections from excise (collection from liquor) also remained buoyant as it grew 9% till October. The state collected excise to the tune of Rs1,473.95 crore against Rs1,356 crore collected in the corresponding period last fiscal.