The other States that garnered high tax collections are Tamil Nadu - Rs 19,952 crore (Rs 19,217 crore), Karnataka - Rs 16,163 crore (Rs 14,255 crore), Gujarat - Rs 15,814 crore (Rs 13,448 crore) and Kerala Rs 9,685 crore (Rs 7,686 crore).

“Andhra Pradesh registered the highest growth rate in VAT collections, despite slower increase in contribution from petro products,” Mr Konathala Ramakrishna, Minister for Commercial Taxes, told Business Line.

Petro products, which contributed nearly one-third of total collections, expected to chip in Rs 6,700 crore in 2007-08. But the actual collections fell short by nearly Rs 1,000 crore, registering a growth of 9.53 per cent.

Liquor too fell short of the target of Rs 3,300 crore and stood at Rs 3,231 crore.

Public sector units, petro products and liquor are the three segments which attract more taxes than the normal VAT rates. Contribution from the actual VATable items was put at Rs 10,802.73 crore as against the target of Rs 10,450 crore.

The Government had reduced tax rate on petro products by one percentage point last year to give a slight relief to the people after the petroleum prices shot up. The rate of diesel too was reduced by 0.75 percentage point. “We lost about Rs 200 crore on this count,” the Minister said.

He attributed the higher VAT collections in the year to enhanced base of assessees and increased compliance levels. From a base of 3.5 lakh traders under the old taxation system, the number of assessees came down to 1.5 lakh.

When asked about the alleged harassment of traders, he said the interaction with the department had significantly come down. “There could be problems here and there. Those who comply with the norms would be spared,” he said.