Title - Tax evasion by traders continues unabated

Amritsar: Seizure of 17 parcels containing grocery items without bills from the Golden Temple Mail by the Excise and Taxation Department recently has again raised the issue of evasion of taxes by traders.Many city traders resort to evasion of taxes to maximise their profits by reducing their investment cost and then sell the same at a high price in the retail market.Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner-cum-Deputy Director Investigation PS Randhawa said despite a limited staff, his officials managed to increase the revenue from penalties and fines as compared to the previous year. The department earned revenue of Rs 2 crore from April to November 2011. While the figure stood at Rs 2.84 crore in the corresponding period this year.He said a majority of the goods being supplied here by trains were readymade garments, hosiery, grocery items (all of these products attract 5 per cent VAT), electronics (on which tax varies from 5.5 per cent to 12.5 per cent) and footwear (which attracts 12.50 per cent VAT).He said sleuths of this department seized a majority of this merchandise during the raids. “A penalty to the tune of 50 per cent of the value of the consignment seized would be imposed on traders,” he added.He said without a bill, consignments are transported through bogeys, which are leased out by the Railways for a certain period. This is also called small luggage parcel, commonly known as SLR.

Another common way to evade taxes is to send the material in the cargo on a luggage ticket, where the sender pays the charge of the ticket of an adult. He said a railway parcel is another popular option among the law evaders.

He said the Railways is not concerned with bills of these merchandise. But the department has conveyed their administrators to ensure that cargos being transported in trains must carry addresses of consignee and consigner besides tax index number (TIN).

A number of traders in connivance with officials of the department concerned evade entry tax on merchandise being brought from outside Punjab. It is alleged that the people unload the packets and bundles of consignments at a rail crossing when the train slows down before reaching the railway station.