Yogi Adityanath was chairing a meeting of the state tax department pertaining to revenue collection at his residence, he said that Value Added Tax (VAT) will not be increased in the near future too.

"Keeping in mind the larger public interest, we have not increased the rate of VAT or imposed any new tax in the state. Today the lowest VAT rate on petrol/diesel is in Uttar Pradesh. There will be no increase in VAT in the near future as well. Keeping this in mind, efforts should be made to increase the revenue collection according to the zone-wise potential," said Yogi Adityanath.

According to an official statement released, the chief minister said the amount collected from the public will be spent on developmental and public welfare works, He directed that for financial year 2022-23, concrete efforts should be made pertaining to revenue collection with an aim to collect ₹1.50 lakh crore as Goods and Services Tax (GST) and VAT.

The chief minister also directed officials that the number of GST-registered traders should be increased to 4 lakh in the next 6 months. The traders should be told about the benefits of GST registration/return, the statement said quoting the chief minister.

Reviewing the zone-wise target for revenue collection in the current financial year, he inquired about the efforts being made to achieve the target and gave necessary guidelines to increase the revenue collection according to the potential of different zones.

"There has been a steady increase in the revenue collection of the state due to planned efforts. The total revenue collection of the state was ₹58,700 crore in the financial year 2017-18, which has increased to about ₹1 lakh crore in the year 2021-22. The collection for the first quarter of the current financial year is ₹32,386 crore against the target of ₹31,786 crore. This can be called satisfactory," he said.

Yogi said that efforts should be made to meet the tax collection target of ₹1.50 lakh crore for the financial year.

"This is the amount collected from the public, which will be spent for the development of the state, for public welfare works. There is immense potential in the state. Concerted efforts should be made to achieve revenue in line with the GST and VAT collection target of ₹1.50 lakh crore for the current financial year," he said.

The Chief Minister, while instructing the officials to give weekly targets to the field officers, said that he will conduct a monthly meeting to review the same.

"Weekly target should be given to the field officers from the government level to increase the revenue collection. It should be reviewed weekly. A zone-wise report should be made on the raids conducted and the revenue collected. I will conduct the monthly meeting and review it zone-wise myself," he said.

"Create awareness among the traders, more and more traders should be registered in GST. Traders should be made aware of the benefits of GST registration/filing of returns. Organise seminars in small towns. There is still a lack of awareness in many areas like Gorakhpur and Basti divisions. For this, special efforts will have to be made by the field level officers," Yogi added