The professional tax collection (figure does not include government officials whose tax is paid directly to the Treasury), which was around ₹840 crore in 2015-16, went up to ₹964 crore in 2017-18 — growing by over 14%. The growth rate is expected to increase further with collection expected to touch ₹1,100 crore in 2018-19.

An analysis of the data on professional tax collection in the State during the past decade shows that barring in 2015-16, when the slabs were revised, tax collection has been growing.

A maximum of ₹2,500 a year is levied as professional tax on establishments and persons earning more than ₹15,000 a month. Professional tax is among the only two taxes (the other being Karnataka Sales Tax) that the State government administers, after the other taxes were subsumed in the GST regime. “Collection has also gone up because of the department’s efforts to expand the tax base,”