JOIN USHaryana keeps tabs on builders evading taxes
The Haryana Excise and Taxation Department is keeping an eye on tax-evading builders and e-commerce companies as it aims to recover a whopping arrears of around Rs 3,500 crore accumulated over a period of 20 years.
Addressing a news conference here on Saturday, Excise and Taxation Minister Kiran Choudhry said the department is tapping new areas where taxes are due for increasing revenue collections.
She said some builders as well as top e-commerce companies registered in Gurgaon have been asked to pay the tax.
Some hotels were found charging service tax or charge from the consumers, but not paying it to the government and they had been directed to fall in line, she added.
“We are also getting a survey done to find out how many hotels are indulging in this illegal practice,” she said.
The minister also touched upon recovering arrears of Rs 3,500 crore, which have been outstanding for a period of 20 years on various accounts. “I have put my officers on the job,” she said.
The department, she said, receives complaints of various nature including harassment, complaints against the officials and against the distilleries.
She said action has been taken in cases where “our officers have been found guilty”.
“We are working here without any vested interest and in a complete transparent manner,” she said.
Commenting on the incidents where illicit liquor is seized in huge quantities, she said the liquor is destroyed and the entire process is video graphed and overseen by a committee to avoid any bungling.
Meanwhile, Kiran Choudhry said the state government would get Central Sales Tax (CST) compensation amounting to Rs 1,275 crore by the end of February 2014.
Choudhry said Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has assured that a budget provision for the said amount of compensation has been made.
She said she had strongly taken up the issue of compensation at higher level as a result of which the Central government would now compensate the state to settle its pending claims up to the year 2010.
This would further boost up the revenue collections, she added.