On the Delhi-Amritsar National Highway on Saturday, Punjab Finance and Excise Minister Harpal Singh Cheema led a team of tax department employees in a special check on cars transporting commodities in an effort to arrest tax evaders.
When Punjab Minister for Finance, Excise and Taxation Harpal Singh Cheema entered the Tax Department teams in a special drive for tracking the false bills, the truckers, their owners, and the businesses moving goods were left shocked.
At least 38 vehicles were stopped for inspection during the drive in the Patiala district near Rajpura because the bulk of them lacked proper identification, such as e-way bills, etc. These trucks were moving bricks, rice, black ash, furniture, mixed commodities, iron scrap, and other materials. The group received a collective fine of almost Rs. 60 lacks.
According to Mr Cheema, the special drive was conducted when he learned that certain trucks and other vehicles were transporting goods without paying the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The minister oversaw the covert operation after having tea with cops at a dhaba in Rajpura around 8 a.m. He was seen conversing with drivers and looking through paperwork while standing by the side of the road. Senior officials, including Taxation Commissioner KK Yadav, Additional Commissioner-I Viraj S Tidke, Director of Investigation HPS Ghotra, and others, escorted by the minister, made sure that only cars with the proper papers were allowed to pass while those without were impounded.
“The message to everyone is clear. No one will be allowed to evade taxes, and no ‘sifarish’ will be permitted. “We will not tolerate any laxity on the side of my department,” Cheema remarked.
During the special drive, about 150 cars transporting iron scrap, mixed products, furniture, packages, etc. were examined. 38 of them were kept for verification since the bulk lacked proper documentation or an e-way bill.
Against all the tax evaders strict action would have been executed. The major purpose of the drive would be to make the tax evaders demoralize, conveying to the real assessees that the State administration does not harass them in any way. Tax administration made the bilingual WhatsApp Chatbot-cum-helpline number 9160500033 to assist the upstanding assessees.
The department’s data mining section has been using ETTSA (the department’s own Technical Service Agency) and a variety of other platforms to detect tax evasion operations, according to Mr Cheema, who said that would not be tolerated. He said that the wing produces reports in response to abnormalities and inconsistencies discovered in the data and that these discoveries are then sent to the appropriate authority so that it may take any required action.
He asserts that the tax authority has also established a new Tax Intelligence Unit (TIU) to monitor the GSTN platform and carry out improved analyses of the digital data made accessible by it.
Closure
- Around 150 vehicles were checked.
- 38 persons were detained for not having genuine documents.
- A fine of Rs 60 lakh is to be imposed.
