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Punjab assembly passes four bills

The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed four bills including a bill seeking to amend the Punjab VAT Act, 2005.

The house passed the Punjab Privately Managed Recognised Schools Employees (Security of service) bill, the Punjab School Education Board (Amendment) bill, the Punjab Municipal fund (Amendment) bill and the Punjab Value Added Tax (Amendment) bill without much discussion.

Click to view Punjab Assembly passed bill, dated 26/03/2008

Punjab - Tax pilferage: VAT on food served in marriage parties now

In order to put a check on pilferage of taxes, excise and taxation officials have now introduced VAT on the food that is served in marriage parties held in city marriage palaces.

A recent notification issued by the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner (DETC) M S Kondlus, the host of the party will have to deposit Rs 5,000 as VAT on the food being served in the party. He added, “In case the catering is being done by a registered caterer, we will charge VAT from the concerned caterer but Rs 5,000 has to be deposited by the party only in case they are arranging halwais on their own who have no VAT number making it difficult for us to charge tax.”

Kondlus said if the host does not want to pay Rs 5,000 VAT, he will have to show us the original bills of the food items purchased for the party.

According to the excise officials, Ludhiana residents throw lavish parties on such occasions in which a variety of food items are served but whenever we ask the marriage palace owner or the host about the caterers, they give us vague replies.

While the excise department is expecting to bring in good revenue as the marriage season is in full swing these days, the notification has made the venue owners and the hosts of the parties crying foul. They say that now all of a sudden they have to rush to the Excise Department to deposit the fees. Earlier, only liquor permit was issued by the Excise Department to those who wanted to serve liquor in their parties.