Kerala government to select another service provider for Medisep

Thomas Issac, Kerala’s Finance Minister, says that the state GST department is coming up with various initiatives to increase tax revenue and comply with the growth target. He also mentioned that 30% of traders who haven’t file their GST returns have already received notices. In case they fail to pay the amount specified in the notice, they will end up losing their GST registration.

FM added that the GST wing would be verifying the figures provided by the traders versus the figures rendered by their respective suppliers after the annual GST returns are filed. FM anticipates collecting Rs 1,500 crore in the form of fine by doing this exercise.

FM said that the government would opt for a re-tender for selecting a service provider for Medisep, which is a health insurance scheme meant for pensioners and government employees. This is because the agency, which was chosen in the earlier Request for Proposal (RFP) was not successful in enrolling enough number of hospitals under Medisep.

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The Finance Minister said that the government will now revise the rates for various procedures and opt for a re-tender. The premium would raise; however, the government will not take responsibility for the additional expenses.

Specifically, for the gold sector, powerful surveillance and implementation have been scheduled to identify suppression of sale. Also, the District Collectors will be instructed to accelerate procedures which are related to revenue recovery. The acceleration in the recovery process will help in collecting arrears concerning departments of motor vehicles, taxes, registration, and excise.

Recently, Kerala also became the first state to levy 1% flood cess on GST. With this move, the state government aims to raise Rs 600 crore annually via the cess. The government aims to utilise the collected amount for various activities under the Rebuild Kerala Programme.