State reorganization should be fair: Governor

Hyderabad, March 26 (INN): Governor ESL Narasimhan on Wednesday wanted all the proposals of presentations of various committees for State reorganization should be transparent and in fair manner which would be acceptable to both the new governments to be formed by June 2.

He reiterated that all these discussions and presentations are tentative to help facilitate the smooth transition of power to the new state governments and later they will take a final call in the larger interest of the people of both the states.

The Governor asked the members of the different committees to focus mainly on issues related to both the states. He also directed the officials to prepare a list of issues separately to be submitted to the Government of India.

In a two-and-a-half hour lengthy meeting held at the Raj Bhavan here today, senior officers of various committees looking into Resource Mobilization, Irrigation and CAD, and Physical assets available in the twin cities submitted a detailed report to the Governor.

The Governor has directed the officials to complete all the preparatory measures by April 30 and strictly adhere to the deadline.

On behalf of the Resource Mobilization Committee, Prl. Secretary, Revenue, SP Singh has informed to the Governor that it is advisable to constitute a broad-based committee consisting of members from Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance, GoI, and senior officers of State Finance and officers from key Revenue earning departments to examine and validate the report of Resource Mobilization Committee with focus on the modalities of revenue apportionment and conflict resolution mechanism.

To resolve any unforeseen transitional issues and conflicts, the services of an expert consultant, preferably a retired IAS Officer, who has extensive knowledge of revenue earning departments, taxation laws may be engaged to prepare a blue print to be adopted by both the states.

Singh also suggested various possible solutions for apportionment of revenues between two successive states. Assuming the existing licensing, tax structure and rates to continue, Singh has said that the revenue projections for the years 2014-15 & 2015-16 (Accrual based) for Commercial Tax is expected to be around 9 % for both the states.

Similarly, the prohibition and excise growth would be 5%, Registration & Stamps Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts would be 25%, Krishna, Guntur and Ongole districts by 20%, and the remaining districts by 15%.

Revenue from the Transport sector is not encouraging even nation-wide and its revenue growth is projected at 3%.

Singh suggested for a separate TIN numbers to be allotted to the dealers in Telangana state. He said preparatory measures have taken up like printing of various forms, licenses, permits, etc., for the two states under all revenue and taxation Acts.

Also taken up to set up IT enabled services like Mee Seva and e-seva centers in both the states. It is proposed for the division of AP Beverages Corporation.

Nagi Reddy, Prl. Secretary, Irrigation, presented on Irrigation and CAD departments and Special Chief Secretary Laxmi Parthasarathy Bhaskar presented on the physical assets like Assembly buildings, Secretariat and MLA quarters.

The Special Chief Secretary has offered various options to accommodate the Chief Ministers and Ministers, MLAs and other elected representatives for the new governments.

However, the Governor has asked the Secretary, AP State Legislative Assembly to discuss this issue once again with the Chairman, Legislative Council, and Speaker, AP State Assembly and submit a detailed report.

In this regard, he said a tentative decision will be taken later and he will visit personally, if required.