Notices against almost 50K docs, advocates

The Asian Age: Mumbai: Saturday, June 15, 2013.

The professional tax department of Maharashtra government has issued 30,368 notices to doctors and 20,277 notices to advocates in the city in the last three-and-a-half years for not paying professional tax.

In a reply to an RTI query filed by activist Manoranjan Roy, the sales tax deputy commissioner (professional tax) replied that the department has issued 30,368 notices to doctors and 20,277 notices to advocates seeking recovery of the tax. These notices have been issued under Section 5 of the Mahara-shtra State Tax on Profe-ssion, Trades, Callings and Employments Act 1975.

A department official said that the department does not have information about how many people have responded to notices and how much tax has been recovered after notices.

I also filed another RTI with the Maharashtra Bar Council and was informed that the Council got 4,675 complaints against advocates, but no one was imprisoned till today. It means that advocates are playing with the laws. They are making a mockery of the laws,” said Mr Roy.

However, experts have different views. Advocate Y.P. Singh said, “The law which cannot be enforced, should not be brought about. It creates only confusion, chaos and litigation. The state government has done nothing to spread awareness about it.”

An expert in the medico-legal field, Dr Ashish Tiwari also echoed Mr Singh’s reaction and said, “Many doctors may be willing to file the tax, but the harsh reality is that they do not know what to do or how to pay it.”

Confirming the move to slap notices, joint commissioner of sales tax (profession tax) V.V. Guthe said, “We have issued notices as the last resort against those who did not respond to reminders to pay the professional tax.”

However, another official told The Asian Age, “Around 10 per cent professionals are not paying professional tax and this is causing a loss of around `5 crore to the state exchequer every year. Since we are short of manpower, recovering this tax from defaulters has become a cumbersome process.”