The State government issued orders allocating the Commercial Taxes (CT) portfolio to Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy on Saturday. The portfolio was hitherto held by Deputy Chief Minister K. Narayanaswamy.
With this, Mr. Narayanaswamy will be helming only Excise and Prohibition Department, while Mr. Rajendranath has Finance and Planning, Legislative Affairs, and Commercial Taxes under him.
The government did not mention any reason for the transfer of the portfolio in the gazette notification.
This was the second attempt to bring the Revenue and Finance departments under one umbrella.
The government had made an attempt in July to bring the important portfolios of Revenue and Stamps and Registration (looked after by Deputy Chief Minister Dharmana Krishna Das) under the Finance Minister.
It, however, revoked the relevant G.O. immediately.
The government had then said that it was effecting the changes to have more synergy of resource mobilisation with the Finance Department.
In that G.O., all the related Heads of Departments and autonomous organisations such as the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Director and Inspector-General of Registrations and Stamps, and the AP VAT Appellate Tribunal (Visakhapatnam) had been attached to the Finance Department.
The proposal had hit a roadblock, as the departments were headed by two Ministers. The transfer of subjects was not easy as it had an impact on the portfolios of the two Deputy Chief Ministers looking after them.
Later, the government had brought Planning under the Finance Department. The merger was to cut inordinate delays in developmental activities. It was a smooth transition as the political head of both the departments was the Finance Minister.
