The Hindu : Kerala News : Tax raids: jewellers down shutters

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Wednesday, Dec 12, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala

Tax raids: jewellers down shutters

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Gold merchants across the State downed the shutters of their establishments on Tuesday in protest against tax raids on some of the jewellery shops on Monday.

A top official at the Finance Minister’s office said the raids were conducted on Monday on selected shops that did not comply even with the comfortable option of compounding their tax remittances. Merchants who take this option are required to remit one per cent tax on 115 per cent of their reported turnover of the previous year. If not, the tax rate is four per cent.

Though raids were conducted only on two shops each in every district, tax evasion noticed came to more than Rs.4 crore, according to the official. The raid was conducted in each shop after test purchases done at the shops revealed that the merchants were not billing their sales. The government proposes to continue raids to unearth tax evasion, he added.

Kerala Gold Merchants’ Association president P.T. Cherian accused the government of harassing even small gold merchants who retained just two or three kilograms of jewellery in their shops. He said that, if this was the government’s attitude, the small jewellers would be pushed out of business, especially at a time when large establishments were invading the trade in the State. The association would hold a demonstration before the Secretariat here on Friday .

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