| Meghalaya traders evade tax, revenue loss in crores : CAG | |
| Press Trust of India / Shillong June 26, 2009, 13:34 IST | |
Tax evasion amounting to several crores were detected in Meghalaya by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) who said dealers adopted several illegal means like concealing of turnovers and producing of fake declaration certificates to skirt leviable tax.
Eleven coal dealers concealed a turnover of Rs 92.90 crore and evaded tax of Rs 7.43 crore on which penalty of Rs 14.86 crore was also leviable, the CAG said in its report for the year ended on March 31, 2008, tabled in the assembly this week.
The report also indicted the Tax Department due to lack of vigilance which allowed eight coal dealers to utilise fake 'C' form (declaration form) to evade taxes amounting to Rs 1.21 crore on which penalty of Rs 2.20 crore was to be levied.
Besides, lack of control of check posts authorities on import and dispatch of goods through the check posts resulted in loss of revenue of Rs 9.72 crore, while failure of the assessing officers to maintain way road permit registers and to take cognizance of the way road permits received from the check posts at the time of finalising the assessments resulted in evasion of tax of Rs 35.14 crore.
The CAG said due to absence of co-ordination between the check posts of the taxation department and the directorate of mineral resources there was non-realisation of revenue of Rs 13.95 crore. Failure of the department to erect check posts at strategic locations also resulted in a loss of revenue of Rs 11.13 crore.
Of the 12,36,033 vehicles carrying consignments meant for other states, about 1,77,833 vehicles did not cross through the exit check post resulting in loss of revenue of Rs 20.51 crore.
The CAG also detected unauthorised export of coal and limestone to Bangladesh that led to a loss of revenue of Rs 6,37 crore.
Scrutiny of government records revealed that the permit holders exported 10.29 lakh MT of coal and 5.89 lakh MT of limestone to Bangladesh through the three land customs stations between April, 2005 to March, 2007.
But cross verification of the report of the customs department revealed that the permits holders actually exported 11.74 lakh MT of coal and 12.66 lakh MT of limestone, CAG said.
The CAG also said inter-state sale of goods of Rs 261.39 crore not supported by declaration form was irregularly exempted resulting in underassessment of tax of Rs 23.21 crore and interest of Rs 15.28 crore.
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