Special inspection drive aimed at plugging tax evasion: J-K Tax Deptt

The Jammu and Kashmir Tax Department Friday night made it clear that the drive launched by it for inspecting businesses and checking e-way bills in the state is to prevent large-scale tax evasion noticed under GST and it will continue. The department also appealed to general public to insist for proper bill against any purchases made by them and be aware that while they are paying legitimate GST, the same should reach the government accounts.

While the share of J&K GST to total GST of all the states is 1.2 per cent, the compliance level in the state is only 0.27 per cent," a spokesperson of the State Tax Department in a statement issued here.

"The departmental assessment has revealed around 30 per cent leakage in the process," he said.

The spokesman said that out of the total registered 92,000 dealers in the GSTN, till last month only 52,000 trade and businesses were filing GST returns regularly. "With the increased enforcement activities by the department, now 72,000 trade and businesses have filed returns for the month of October 2018, he said and added that in 70 per cent of the cases, where inspections have been carried out by the department, gross violation and tax evasion have been detected. Sustained efforts of the department against defaulters has resulted in a substantial increase in the monthly IGST settlement of the state. The state received an IGST settlement of Rs 225 crore on an average during the previous months.However, with the action against the defaulters, the IGST settlement for the month of October has gone up to Rs 265 crore, he said.

The spokesperson further reiterated that investigation of records and checking of e-way bills would continue till such time the trade and businesses start complying the GST law, file returns in time, generate proper invoices and deposit the tax to the department timely.

He said that the Chambers of Commerce have wrongly misinterpreted toll tax as if it is levied in contradiction of GST regime.

Toll tax is levied consciously to promote industrial development in the state as a policy tool, he said.

He also said the Chamber has wrongly accused the State Tax Department of interfering in cross-LoC trade while it has not interfered in any manner till date.

The spokesperson stressed, In none of the cases where teams of the department have conducted investigations, any misbehavior on the part of staff of the department has been reported".

The investigation teams have been led by senior officers of the department and the lower staff have been wearing proper uniform in order to ensure lest anybody in civil dress should create confusion by way of entering or intentionally joining the team, he said.

The spokesperson expressed dismay over the personal attack by the Chamber of Commerce against the officers of the department and appealed the public to support the department in curbing tax evasion.

Not taking bills by the public from any supplier is causing tax evasion and loss of revenue to the government, he added.

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