In my previous article, I discussed the dwindling Excise Tax collections of Himachal government. In this follow up article, I analyze Excise Tax collected till Jul 2023.
The overall picture, compared to previous years is not very encouraging. Or, am I missing some data?
Cumulative collections till Jul 2023 of 2023-24 at Rs 214 crores are just about 50% of last year's collection of Rs 408 crores and nearly equal to Rs 205 crores collected in pandemic year (2020-21).
During Jul 2023, Himachal collected only Rs 11 crores!
I will now analyze District wise and Treasury wise data. The figures are not very encouraging.
Among the six districts that contribute bulk of Excise Tax collections, only Solan is close to its last year collections. Shimla has collected only Rs 9 crores which is just 13% of its last year' collection.
At the Treasuries level:
Mandi, Hamirpur, Kullu and Solan are doing much better than last year.
Dharamshala is holding on to last year' collection level.
Nurpur, Sunder Nagar, Shimla and Ghumarwin are not collecting Excise Tax anywhere close to their last year' collection.
Look at YTD Daily Collections of Excise Tax for last six years. Between Apr 21, 2023 and Jul 31, 2023, we collected only Rs 50 crores. If the collections do not pick up in Aug 2023, this year's collections would be lowest - even worse than pandemic year.
Himachal is a cash starved state. Why are collections so different from previous years.
Or, am I missing some data? Is Himachal government depositing these collections in some other bank accounts which are not open to public scrutiny?
I do not have answers.
I will appreciate inputs from people knowledgeable about Himachal government financials / government officials.
(All data taken from HP Government websites)