No room for commercial taxes evasion: Jammu & Kashmir Finance Minister

Looking to check leakages in commercial tax revenue collections, Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather has called for vigorous auditing and assessment to eliminate the possibility of evasion. Chairing a periodical performance review meeting of the Commercial Taxes Department in Kashmir yesterday, Rather said, "Being the major source of revenue for the state exchequer, there should be no room for tax evasion or laxity in its realisation process." The minister was informed that the Commercial Taxes Department has realised revenues of Rs 695.58 crore up to October this year, as against the target of Rs 826.13 crore for the full financial year, an official spokesman said. The spokesman said an amount of Rs 301.22 crore has been realised as Value Added Tax (VAT) and Rs 394.36 crore as General Sales Tax (GST), which includes works contracts, liquor, ATF and other services. The department conducted 968 inspections up to October this year and imposed penalties worth Rs 20.19 lakh on dealers for violation of VAT rules, the spokesman said.