From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Feb 7: Karnataka has exceeded the Commercial Taxes collection target for the current financial year 2011-12 by 22 per cent or roughly Rs 500 to 600 crore.

The State government had fixed the target for the year 2011-12 at Rs 26,700 crore.

Replying to BJP member Y Sampangi during the question hour in the state legislative assembly on Tuesday, he said the commercial taxes collection grew by 9 per cent in 2009-10 and 22.57 per cent in 2010-11 and so far in the current fiscal, the achievement was 22 per cent.

The number cases of tax evasion have declined sharply after the introduction of e-payment facility.

Verification of the list of beneficiaries of various social security schemes has been completed in 26 districts, Gowda said.

The government has suspended the release of amount to beneficiaries of various schemes such as old age, physically challenged and widows to check bogus beneficiaries.

The number of beneficiaries of social security schemes has gone up from 16.48 lakh in 2006-07 to 40.88 lakh in 2010-11.

A total of 6.33 lakh bogus beneficiaries have been detected during the verification, he said.

Verification process was underway in four districts – Bellary, Bagalkot, Bijapur and Raichur.

Gowda told Nadagounda Venkatrao of JD(S) that the process of verification in four districts would be completed in the next four days.