Cheema directs Taxation department to tight noose around tax evaders from service sectors

Chandigarh: Lauding the performance of the Taxation department of Punjab during last one year, the Finance, Planning, Excise and Taxation Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema on Tuesday directed the department to further tighten the noose around tax evaders from service sector. He asked the State Intelligence & Preventive Unit (SIPU) and Tax Intelligence Unit (TIU) to work in tandem to trace, track and nab the tax evaders from service sectors.

Chairing the maiden review meeting of State Intelligence & Preventive Unit at Excise and Taxation Bhawan, the Excise and Taxation Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema said that the department has performed remarkably in check tax evasion in the trade of Goods, and now the need of the hour is to put a strong check over the tax evaders in field of service sectors. He asked the department to formulate a strong strategy against those registered and non-registered service providers who were not paying GST for the paid services being rendered by them.

 penalty of more than Rs. 234 Crore, SIPU registers 38 percent increase in total penalty from Goods in Transit

Earlier, the officials apprised the minister about the goals and achievements of SIPU through a PowerPoint representation. The newly formed SIPU, which was earlier known as Mobile Wing of the Taxation Department, has 38 percent increase in total penalty from Goods in Transit by charging a penalty of Rs. 190.94 Crore and 43.54 crore from inspections during the financial year 2022-23 as against the total of Rs. 169.13 core during the FY 2021-22. Out of this, penalty of Rs. 121.43 crore was charged only from iron & steel scrap and finished goods, resulting in 66.44 percent of total detention. The total detentions were 9018 out of which 2455 were from Ludhiana only. In the most of the major cases where more than 20 lakh in a single vehicle, the vehicles were carrying copper scrap and edible oil.

TIU reversed ITC to the tune of Rs. 1294 Crore, ITC worth 52.98 Crore blocked

In the presentation of Tax Intelligence Unit, the Excise and Taxation Minister was apprised that the TIU has reversed the Input Tax Credit (ITC) amounting to Rs. 1294.04 crore besides blocking the ITC worth Rs. 52.98 Crore upto March 31, 2023. This includes ITC reversal of 1084.95 crore with the inspection of 10 major cases. The TIU found that some of the life Insurance and health assurance firms were claiming and utilizing undue ITC. Cancelled dealers were also scrutinized by the TIU team. During scrutiny it has been detected that many of these dealers have huge ITC credit balance in their credit ledger. The Cases are still under verification and based on the report of TIU, districts has so far reversed ITC to the tune of Rs 209.08 Cr and blocked ITC worth Rs 43.20 Cr.

Prominent amongst others, Financial Commissioner Taxation Vikas Partap, Taxation Commissioner Kamal Kishore Yadav, Additional Commissioner -1 Viraj S. Tidke, Director Investigation Tejbir Singh Sidhu were also present in this review meeting.