The Hindu : Other States / Punjab News : Punjab posts 12.2 per cent increase in tax collection

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Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005

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Punjab posts 12.2 per cent increase in tax collection

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHANDIGRH, FEB. 15. The Punjab Excise and Taxation Department has reported a total tax collection of Rs 3944.28 crores during the current fiscal, which is Rs 397.47 crores more, translating into a 12.2 per cent increase, over the corresponding period of the previous year.

Quoting the State Excise and Taxation Minister, Sardool Singh, an official release here today said that the Department continued to intensify its campaign against tax evasion, for which simultaneous inspections were conducted across the State by mobile teams, who detected 3561 cases of violation of the Punjab General Sales Tax (PGST) Act during 2004. A penalty of Rs. 12.20 crores was imposed, out of which Rs.11.45 crores has been recovered while there was an overall increase of 20.29 per cent in collection of penalty amounts levied at the state wide Information Collection Centres (ICCs).

Mr. Singh added that to put a further check on tax evaders, various assessing authorities conducted inspections in more than 100 manufacturing units. The Directorate of Enforcement and its mobile wings had detected 2967 cases of PGST Act till November 2004. All the cases were decided, imposing a penalty of Rs.10.3 crores, out of which Rs.9.68 crores has been recovered.

The Minister said that for the first time entry tax was imposed on some of the goods, like yarn and paper, imported from other States to protect the interests of local trade and industry. The total revenue collection on account of this levy for the year 2003-04 was Rs.26.61 crores.

The Minister emphasised that the increase in tax collections was in spite of a major of sales tax relief of Rs. 394 crores, annually, granted during this period on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, Dhabas and abolition of surcharge on exempted units as well as scaling down purchase tax on milk from four to two percent. Further, entertainment tax concessions had been given to all multiplexes with a minimum investment of Rs. 20 crores having four screens for five years. Two new distilleries were set up and five new bottling plants had started their production during the last three years.

Mr. Sardul Singh further added that major initiatives were taken by the department to bring unregistered dealers into the ambit of taxation. A major computerisation project has been implemented in the department to smarten up the tax administration. All information on ICCs and sub-offices were made online with a central server at Patiala. Real time data was available for all transactions taking place in the State. This project has been formulated at a cost of Rs. 45 crores, which is the first of its kind to be implemented by any commercial taxes department in the country. It is also proposed to set up "Kar Sewa Centres'' across the State to enable receipt of returns of taxes, issuance of statutory forms, registration and refunds.

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Punjab posts 12.2 per cent increase in tax collection