Vigilance bureau conducts surprise check at inter-state tax

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau today conducted a surprise check at inter-state tax collection centre at Shambhu in Patiala district, an official said.
During the surprise check, some discrepancies were noticed at the barrier by the vigilance sleuths, Punjab Vigilance Bureau Chief B K Uppal said.
The Bureau had received complaints regarding overcharging during collection of inter-state taxes and irregularities in entries of vehicles at the 'Shambu barrier' to evade taxes, he said.
To probe the allegations, the Bureau today constituted a team led by SP EOW Pritipal Singh, Uppal said.
The team has reported that no display board showing details of facilitation of fees or user charges was put up at the collection office, the officer said.

Besides, an employee was found working on 24 hours duty despite deployment of four employees on eight hour shifts, he said.

Uppal informed that the Bureau would send a detailed report to the excise and taxation department to take further action on the basis of these findings.
The special team inspected tax documents of vehicles and taxies from 8 am to late evening in which 38 trucks, 75 mini trucks and 18 tempo travels, four luxury tourist buses, 86 cars were monitored, he said.
He added that Rs 15,230 were collected as taxes from defaulters on the spot.
The Bureau scrutinised collection records of the barrier pertaining to the previous 10 days and found that only 150-200 inter-state vehicles were shown in the entries with collections of estimated Rs 2 lakh as tax, the vigilance chief said.

Comparatively the team has reported record entry of about 450 vehicles and Rs 5.38 lakh were recovered as inter-state taxes during the same duration, he said.