The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Rs. 40 lakh worth copper scrap seized near Devanahalli

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 28, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Rs. 40 lakh worth copper scrap seized near Devanahalli

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: A large consignment of copper scrap without valid documents, believed to be worth over Rs. 40 lakh was recovered on Monday night by officials of the Commercial Tax Department (Intelligence) after a day-long vigil.

Joint Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Intelligence), South Zone, S. Dayashankar told presspersons that the copper scrap-laden lorry was intercepted near Devanahalli, about 20 km from here. He said: "The officials waited for the lorry to be loaded with copper scrap and then intercepted it." The modus operandi, he said, was to get the copper scrap in smaller vehicles from the city and load them to the lorry waiting on the outskirts.

The lorry belonged to Bangalore based National Road Carriers, the transporting company on which the officials have been keeping a vigil for the last one year.

Mr. Dayashankar said: "On an average we check the lorries and inspect godowns of National Road Carriers thrice a week. During 2006-2007, we have collected Rs. 68.64 lakh as penalty from the company on charges of transporting goods with out proper documents."

The Joint Commissioner said Sanaulla, the owner of the company, misbehaved with the officials on Monday night, which forced the officials to take help from the police.

He said there were about 20 transporting companies which flout norms regularly, on which the department has been keeping a vigil. "Specific transporters are there for specific goods." On the action taken, he said that the department could only penalise the transporters, as they are the dealers of the goods.

Penalty

The South Zone Intelligence Wing collected over Rs. 88 crore by detecting suppressed turnover of Rs. 1,527 crore by business establishments till the end of February during 2006-2007. Besides, mobile squads have conducted physical verification of nearly 9,500 lorries and collected a penalty of nearly Rs. 8 crore.

Mr. Dayashankar said the officials have checked over 56,000 lorries during this fiscal.

The South Zone has Bangalore Urban and Rural districts in its jurisdiction.

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