The Minister, according to an official statement, enjoined upon officers of Commercial Taxes department to work with added zeal and dedication to realize more revenue in the better interests of the state.

He called for a congenial and trader friendly atmosphere to deal with the dealers adding that without any harassment the process of tax auditing, assessments and inspections should continue unabated to get greater tax revenue.

He also called for creating discipline and order like in civil courts to deal with cases of dealers. He said he will be personally inspecting various circles of the department to ensure close monitoring of the performance indicators.

The meeting was informed that the commercial taxes department has realized a revenue of Rs. 695.58 crore up to October this year against a target of Rs 826.13 crore for the current financial year.

The revenue realized during the last fiscal was to the tune of only Rs. 688 crore.

It was informed that Rs. 301.22 crore has been realized against Value Added Tax (VAT) and Rs. 394.36 crore on account of General Sales Tax (GST) which includes works contract, liquor, ATF and other services. The department has conducted 968 inspections upto October this year and recovered a revenue of Rs. 20.19 lakh as penalty from the dealers for violating the VAT rules.

Meanwhile, about 750 industrial units have been granted remission of Rs. 4.39 crore by the department during the same period. It was stated that the revenue realized under GST has been to the tune of Rs. 5.77 crore and Rs. 88 lakh under VAT arrears. In addition, 3089 seizer cases have been penalized and a fine of Rs. 63.95 lakh recovered from these.

Source: GreaterKashmir.com, India,  dated 17/12/2011