Excise department plans attractive schemes to put a check on VAT evasion

Next time you go shopping at a retail store, don’t forget to collect a receipt of your purchases. The Punjab state excise and taxation department is soon going to start a lucky draw scheme, wherein the bills collected in drop boxes placed at select locations will be taken for a lucky draw and the winners will be given exciting prizes.

Excise and Taxation Commissioner (ETC), Punjab, A Venuprasad disclosed this while talking to Newsline. “We want to inculcate in the consumers a habit of demanding the bill after every purchase with a view to increase VAT collection of the state,” he said.

Punjab finance minister, Manpreet Badal, had recently stated that the growth of VAT in the state was 10 per cent for the financial year 2006-07 as compared to the last financial year. He had mentioned that the current growth pattern was not at par with the neighbouring states and a target of 25 per cent growth should be set for the current year.

Venuprasad admitted that new schemes were being proposed in order to increase the revenue of the government as per the targets set by the finance minister. In addition to this, the enforcement wing of the department has also been asked to look into the details of tax evasion, he said.

“We are yet to decide upon the locations for the drop boxes, but they will surely be put up on sites where maximum number of consumers can utilize them. This, in turn, would force the retailers to pay VAT to the government, which will in turn increase the revenues of the department without having used any stringent measures,” Venuprasad said.

The finance minister’s statement had, however, sent panic waves across the industrial and trading sector in Punjab. General secretary of Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal, Mohinder Aggarwal, said, “The minister wants the revenues to go up by 25 per cent as compared to last year and other states. He should understand ground realities in terms of higher tax structure in Punjab as regards many products sold in the state. While in Punjab the VAT charged on desi ghee is 12.5 per cent, in Delhi it is a mere 4 per cent. The same structure prevails for electrical goods and auto parts as well. Also because of this people prefer purchasing products from other states than buying them from Punjab, and hence our collection is not at par with other states”.

The members of the Mandal have already met the chief minister of state to impress upon the ground realities as they apprehend harassment by taxation authorities in name of increasing revenues. The officials, on the other hand, maintained that they were trying to find the loopholes to keep a check on tax evasion and are not harassing the traders.