Punjab excise dept goes high tech

Explaining the details of the scheme, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner H.M.S. Rosha said that once the bill is fed into the computer, the truck is allowed to proceed on its onward journey and not made to halt for the verification of the bill.

Rosha said a print-out of the bill was taken and the ward in-charge of the Excise Department deputed to check the authenticity of the bill with the issuing firm. The new system would ensure that no bill which had been scanned is torn off by the truck operator on reaching its destination and there was no possibility of tampering with the original bill.

The other advantage of the scheme, Rosha said, was that the bill became a part of the Master Dealer File (MDF) of the company. He said this way a ward official sitting on a check-point would have all the relevant information of a company at the press of a button. And, the small-time companies, who never deposit any tax but give fake bills of lakhs of rupees, would be exposed.

Maintaining that the scheme was trader-friendly, Rosha said the traders would be saved of the trouble of bringing the bill books to the inspecting officials. Now, the officials will go to the traders if any clarification was needed.

Rosha said vigorous steps were being taken to check evasion in Fatehgarh Sahib district and these had yielded good results. There had been 119 per cent increase in tax collection in October this year as compared to the corresponding period last year. The tax collected last month was Rs 2.17 crore against Rs 99 lakh in October last year.

He said many instances of large-scale evasion had been detected. In one case, a trader was found transporting iron and steel material against three fake bills. The tax liability for one day’s transactions of this trader came to approximately Rs 14,000, while he had paid a total tax of only Rs 8,758 for one quarter.

In another case which came to light after conducting an inspection of the business premises, a trader was found to have conducted clandestine sales of Rs 2 crore in one month, without reflecting them in his returns. Similarly, at least three units, granted exemption from payment of sales tax under the industrial policy of the government, were found flouting rules. Their exemptions are being withdrawn, Rosha said.

In another case, it was detected that bogus deductions deductions worth Rs 25 crore from the tax-able turnover had been claimed.

Rosha said in spite of these measures, evasion was rampant and had not been fully controlled. The traders were equipped with latest technological aids such as computers, mobile phones, pagers etc while the department was ill-equipped and lacked the wherewithal to match the resources of the tax evaders.

The Excise and Taxation Department has also been chosen as the first department for implementation of the information technology scheme being undertaken by the Punjab government. Under this scheme, about Rs 7 crore are likely to be spent on developing a revenue oriented and integrated management information system (MIS). Latest hardware and networking technology will be used to implement the scheme. Every ward in the state will be online and inter-connected.