 May I come in sir? Please come. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you sir. So, how are you ready? Fine sir, thank you. You are from Kurnool? Yes sir. Kurnool is a little bit town? Yes sir. Port largest town of Andhra? Port largest. And quite near, it's quite near to Bangalore? Quite near to Hyderabad sir. Hyderabad. Hyderabad. Yeah. And I think highway is leading to Bangalore also. That is Hyderabad. Hyderabad, Hyderabad. Karnool comes there. Yes sir. And you studied in Navodaya Vidhalaya. Yes sir. Tell me something about Navodaya Vidhalaya. When they were established and what was the objective? Sir, they were started in 1986 to provide quality education to students especially from rural background with limited economic means, by focusing on holistic development, not just education, but also for cultural activities. Who is the chairman of this? Chairman of Navodaya Vidhalaya? Navodaya Vidhalaya, committee chairman as such is union education minister. And who is education minister now? There was some change? There was some change? Yes sir. There is a change. He was the oil minister earlier. Prime minister. Prime minister. Yes sir. Okay. Okay. You worked in IOC now and working now on state tax department. Yes. Now the state tax department after GST, what is the status? Sir, we are administering the taxpayers allotted to state. There is a distribution between CGS and SGSD. We are allotted to us and we are allotted to central. So you are dealing with state part of GST? It's not like that sir. We are dealing with taxpayers who are allotted to state both SGSD and CGSD. Like if you are having 5000 dealers in Karnol, 3000 are allotted to state and 2000 to central for administration. See it's like this. It is like above 5 crore turnover, 50-50 ratio. Below 5 crore turnover, 90 to state and 10 to central. Okay. We have to take care of how they are piling up returns and all that. Registration, piling returns, grouping of returns. Enforcement can be done by both SGSD and CGSD. And this fuel also you look after? Fuel tax on petrol and... Sir, there is actually a sunrise registration in YZ. So it is registered in only one circle that you add. So that is not under you now? It is under state government only, but under a single circle. And liquor? Sir, the tax is entirely paid by the Bureas Corporation. It is also registered in Vijayawada, central location. Okay. You see governments headed by political bosses and they are advised by the bureaucrats. Mostly they go by the advice of bureaucrats. Sometimes they do not agree with the bureaucrats and take their own decisions. So mostly they are advised by the bureaucrats and they take decisions. But sometimes those decisions cause them very dearly and even result in fall of government or strictures from the Supreme Court. In those situations, what do you think that bureaucrats should be held responsible for the wrong advice? Or they should be punished or they should not be punished? Example is like this. Hundreds of examples. Governments have fallen many times. Recently, Nagaland government issued orders that all employees should be vaccinated. And High Court has stated it. So there are many some situations that it will be very upward for the government. Mainly because their decisions are based on the advice of bureaucrats. The basic strength of Indian bureaucracy is that they can take risks. With that risk comes innovation. So sometimes that may become failures. But ultimately holding bureaucrats or even the politicians, I mean the government bosses responsible will not serve the purpose. Because it will better them from taking risks. So I think rather than focusing on blaming them, I think we should focus on taking timely feedback so that we can restructure them and make them better. Another issue is very important. Lot of encroachments take place at different places. You would be reading in papers so many encroachments in revenue land, forest land, even on railway stations. So these encroachments, when those are taking place, nobody is bothering. When that reach is a certain critical position or height, then everybody becomes addicted. So much encroachments are taking place. Why those encroachments are taking place? Because of activity on the part of the persons, officers in the field, connivants or political connivants or what? And do you think they should be held accountable for those encroachments? Because after reaching certain stage, it is very difficult to edit the encroachments. So definitely it is true that to handle the encroachment issue, we need to focus on the root causes, addressing the root causes like increasing stress on urban infrastructure and affordable prices. No, I am not discussing that. I am telling, encroachments mostly take place if the field officers are not attentive or they are conniving or there is pressure from the politicians, okay, let them go and stop. In that situation, I am telling you. Sir, definitely we need to hold the officers responsible because they will be dealing with issues at the ground level. So they need to do timely inspections, field inspections, etc. So that they can identify such encroachments at an early level. Further, we can also use technologies like the GIS technology. So based on the satellite maps, we can see whether new encroachments have come or not. Based on that, the officers can go to the field and verify that. Other than officers just going on intelligence or just randomly going. It is specific intelligence from the GIS based software. We can streamline this process because there is a vacancy of officers also. Vacancy of officers, especially in the government. There may or may not be. That cannot be the cause. Andhra is famous for mangoes? Yes. How many mango varieties we have in the country? Any rough idea? It is more than 500-600. And maximum mangoes are produced in which state? Andhra is number one in mango production. Then other states? Maharashtra. Can you tell me 2-3 varieties of mangoes other than Benghampali? We have all of them. Ratnagiri. Yes sir. NDA. Which is the government? NDA government. Is NDA or called BGP government? It is a coalition government. Which are other parties? Pardon me sir. Thank you. How do you pronounce your name? Ashwant. Chalapalli is initial. See Ashwant Kumar Reddy. Ashwant, tell me about your state's position. What is the compensation mechanism provided in the GST law? Actually, in GST, a revenue growth of 14% is guaranteed. Where it was guaranteed? 14% is actually where? 14% or the previous year's revenue. Which, where it is said this? In the GST... Is it in the constitution or compensation act? It is in the compensation act. That is the basic purpose of that. But I think that specific... 14% compensation states should... If they are not able to get 14% growth of the pre-GST revenue, they will get compensation. Where is it spelled? This particular provision is found where? Pardon me sir. I need to look into that. Okay. Now continue. 14%? 14% of revenue is guaranteed. If states are unable to get that, then central will reimburse states from the amount it has collected in the compensation sets. That is levied on products like coal, beverages, etc. And that is calculated provisionally in a basis of two monthly basis. So it is distributed to states. So tell me, Andhra, in the general scheme, you have any idea how many states are required in compensation and how many they are in repair compensation? That exact number I am not having sir. But regarding Andhra, Andhra has in two compensation sets for the first three years. The growth rate was more than 14%. But only this compensation only for three years only, no? Five years. Five years. 100% compensation for the first three years. After that 75% for the fourth year, then it gets reduced to 50%. And then it was not spoken, sir. Recently in the 43rd GST Council, a decision was made that in a separate meeting will be held to discuss upon whether to continue this sets or not. Okay. So first three years you did not require compensation. Then recently the last year, 2020-21 financial year, we had compensation of around 2500 crores. There is some basic underlying flaw in this compensation. As a common man, can you think of any flaw? Sir, definitely states are assured that their revenues will be guaranteed. Then the taxation performance, like increase in the tax base, reducing tax evasion, states will not focus that much on that. Then what else is the problem? Government has not anticipated something, right? It is a situation like pandemic, which it has seen. And the compensation says collections itself. And when the says collections are not up to the level they have expected, then what to do? Who will compensate? Yes. Whether they need to compensate or not? Those are the questions. How do we see this? To that extent, there is a... What is the policy formulation failed, right? Even the central government, the Foundable Finance Minister, told that it is an act of God and they are not responsible. But states are that, that is a constitutional guarantee you have given. And in that, there was no provision. Now you are saying constitutional guarantee. Now you got where it is at today? At 14 percent? I am unable to remember the specific thing. But it was a constitutional guarantee. It is a constitutional, okay. I think a middle of course should be followed, sir, because it is not in the hands of both center and state. So states also should not force for 14 percent revenue growth. Because in this pandemic that is very impossible. So what is the GST collection up to in the month of July? In the month of July it is 90,000 crores. GST collection, July? The numbers are not out yet. The June numbers are 90,000 crores. July it looked today, sir. Yesterday it was completed. July is 1.16 lakh crores. Just now we got it. Here. Okay. Good. So you were there earlier also, pre-GST also, no? No. No joint after GST in 2018. Okay. And do you agree with the principle of sharing of taxpayers between state and the center, the 50-50 more than 5 crores and 90 less than 5 crores? As such I think it is a good mechanism itself, sir. Because with the collective enforcement of both center and state, there is more scrutiny. So there is good... Don't you think disproportionate this thing on below 5 crores, why 90 percent should go to state and 10 percent only should come to center? Because of earlier in the VAT regime, the number of taxpayers with goods, they were more. But number of taxpayers issued in services, they are less. So the land power available with center is very less. Then compared to the manpower with state. So because of that, that was made. But now all the new registrations, they are divided in 50-50 basis. All new? Yeah. All new. Good. And one more thing I wanted to ask GST, because you were so fast and vibrant, I forgot. Very nice. Okay. Good. So eva bills. Yes. It tells me something about eva bills. Sir, here we see a document in which details like the vehicle number, the invoice details will be given and it will have a validity. So that all the transactions above 50,000 will be registered in the network. So at the end of the month, we can tell you whether he has shown all the turn-out in his monthly returns. Further recently there was a very good technological advancement, sir. What they have did is in toll plazas, they will get the data of vehicles passing. They have integrated that with the eva bill data, vehicle number. So with that, we can curb the issue of fake ITC based on fake invoice. What is the level of fake invoice managed in your, in charge of a division? No sir, in charge of a circle. What is the level of fake invoice in your circle? As such, I can tell it is almost zero sir, because my circle is an urban circle and that do most are traders, automobile dealers and cement and steel. They are prone for, the cement sector is prone for fake invoice. It is true sir, but these cement sector, they are distributors for a single company. You are interested in the enforcement also? Yes, I did a lot of inspections also. Enforcement, sir, tell me some interesting case. Yes sir, just, I will tell you two cases, sir, if you permit. One thing is regarding cheat funds. We have, we have inspected one cheat fund sector case. There what we have found is, if tax, if the members are not paying the due amount, then the company is collecting penalty amount. But on that penalty, they are not paying GST. But on that penalty also, we need to, they need to pay GST. Which law, which law says that penalty should be subject to GST? The GST, it is told that the act of, I mean, tolerating a mistake, the act of tolerating a mistake done by the consumer that he has seen paid at that time. So, that also comes under a survey. Which, which, that also comes under, good. So, actually, that is in, okay. Enough testing of your GST knowledge. What do you think about your state's three capital scheme? It's a good or bad, it's a foolish thing. As such, there are both the pros and cons. But in my limited understanding, sir, I think it is a good step. Because Karnul also will get... Sir, it is because of a few reasons, sir. Firstly, Andhra has seen historically that it has lost three capital, Chennai, Hyderabad and Karnul. In all the instances, it was a dessert on stage because their development is centralized. How do you say Chennai lost? Tell me. Yes, sir. Apart from that, sir, the northern part and southern part of Andhra, they are underdeveloped when compared to the middle part. We have seen that in India specifically, capitals act as growth pullers for both social and economic infrastructure. So, it will lead to balance of development. So, one more enabling environment for three capital, advancement in technology. Yes, definitely communication, video conferencing and etc. Okay. Last question. What is the difference between computer science and computer engineering? Computer science basically focuses on theoretical aspects, like automata, computing, compiler design, etc. For further reason. Computer engineering mainly focuses on the application part, the computer networks. What is the difference between engineering and technology? I think technology is a kind of science. Engineering is a kind of application to that science. If you say information technology, biotechnology, then engineering. Computer engineering and computer technology, what is the difference then? Science is theory, engineering, application. Now we come to technology. Thank you. Finally, something different. Okay. What magnitude of how to perform CSR activities? Like there has been three cold criteria. So, what is that? And the criteria based on the net worth, total turnover and the profits of last three years. The average profits of last three years should be more than five crores ma'am, if I remember correctly. And the net worth should be more than 250 crores and turnover more than 500 crores. I will remember the numbers correctly. Yes, you will have to check this. It is 500 and 1,000. Okay. Recently there have been talks of population policy of Assam and Utti. So, what is your opinion about that? And on what line should be the next population policy? Ma'am, presently the total fertility rate of India is around 2.3 and it is expected that our demographic dividend will close sooner than what we expected. So, in the future, population is definitely necessary. And further coming to the specific population policy, Ma'am, I think that rather than focusing on restricting measures, I think we should focus on development and empowering women, specifically with quality education, livelihood opportunities, so that they can take decisions regarding their bodily autonomy and the number of children they need to help. Because we have seen that in the specific experience of South Indian states. So, because of that the TFR has reduced significantly. And also with respect to this population policy, there will be some unintended consequences like diocese to participate in panchayat elections, etc. So, pressure on increase the female feticide because of to have a male child within the two-child limit. So, I think we should rather focus on economic development and also women empowerment along with removing the stigma about use of these contraceptives and especially. Okay. There have been demands by various groups to be included in the tribal list. So, how do you see it? Is that because of the constitutional and statutory guarantees provided by the state, there are multiple demands to integrate them into tribesmen. I think before integrating them, we need to study their socio-economic characteristics and the kind of culture they are having. Is it really a tribal culture? And do they really need the support of state for development? So, in that case, if they satisfy all these conditions, then definitely we can extend the benefits. So, it is. Thank you. Yes, sir. How was your work experience at Indian Oil Corporation? It was great. Actually, I have posted in a disaster recovery center in Bangalore. I worked as a part of a very experienced team. So, I lent the importance of having a standby. And what was the role of this disaster relief department? Actually, disaster recovery center. Recovery center. We have a main production data center at Gurgaon. Our site is a disaster recovery center. We should take upon operations if something happens to the main center so that the operations continue. Can you tell me about the data localization? Pardon me. Data localization. It is an initiative taken by the government so that the critical and sensitive data regarding Indian companies and Indian citizens should be stored within India itself, especially regarding the financial data. Recently, our way has even banned few companies like Diners Club and Mastercard, etc. because they haven't compared with these. So, theories of evolution. Can you tell me different theories of evolution? There were like out of Africa theory where everyone has originated from African ancestors and multiple origins theory where there were multiple ancestors, one in Africa and another in China, etc. And there was no confluence of evidence to credit or discredit any theories. Research is still going on. Which theory do you think, according to you, is the right one? As such, I think the out of Africa origin theory is more reliable. Can you tell me some tribal communities which has close engagement to African tribes which is present in India? Close engagement or resemblance? Close resemblance and close anthropological features. Yes, definitely the types of Hanuman, they have negative features. Sentinels, Om, Jarwa. Anything else? Thanks. One hobby is really interesting. Watching web series on professional pitch. What do you mean by professional pitch? It is a particular genre where the main focus is on the professional side of the actors involved. They will showcase the kind of procedures in that profession, the kind of challenges they go through, how they will welcome them. Can you give me some examples? Gales and autonomy regarding medical interns, suits regarding corporate lawyers. So what do you watch? Which of these? Are there any Indian series which is showing professional fiction? Yes, definitely we have daily crime regarding the Nirbhaya issue. For the recent we have got family man regarding people working with NIA. Can you tell me about censorship associated with OTT platforms? Recently with the recent guidelines a soft touch approach was followed where a three level regulatory approach was followed. At the first level the self-censorship will be there. After that it will be a person appointed. After that censorship by the government. There are some recent changes proposed in the censorship and directors and filmmakers are protesting. Are you aware of this? Can you tell me? It is that the power was given to government that it can order censorship of any movie that is already represented by the censor board. What is your opinion on this? I think as such rather than going for reordering we need to give clear rules to the censor board itself. The kind of child pornography or terrorist activities promotion. So if clear guidelines was there I think the need of re-censorship will not arise. So the film industry is part of the Hollywood? So where is Hollywood now? Is it in Telangana or in Andhra Pradesh? As such it is distributed over both the So Bahubali is from where? Bahubali as such it was produced and the entire film was made in Ramana, sorry sir. It was made in Hyderabad itself sir. But few parts were shot in Karnur also sir. So it was a whole Andhra film. Why? It was filmed in Hoganekal also. Hoganekal Pulse also. Yes sir. Pan Indian film sir. Pardon me sir. Okay. Keshwanta your interview is over.