The Hans India: Hyderabad: Wednesday,
October 26, 2016.
The evasion
of Value Added Tax (VAT) is going on unabated causing loss of lakhs of rupees
to the exchequer. The suppliers of packaged drinking water to the Secretariat
did not even register for VAT till now, even though they are being paid hefty
bills.
There is no
sign of action taken either by the commercial tax department or vigilance
officials against these violations. The details of a sample of six suppliers
revealed that they are not registered either as TOT dealers or as VAT dealers.
According to
Telangana Value Added Tax (VAT) Act, 2005, tax at the rate of 14.5 per cent
should be paid for every sale of Rs 100.
The section 17 of the Act clearly says that vendors whose turnover
exceeds Rs 7.5 lakh per annum should be registered as Turnover Tax (TOT)
dealer.
Vendors whose
turnover is more than Rs 50 lakh should be registered as VAT dealer. Even
section 2(10) clearly defines who comes under the dealer limit.
The
Secretariat complex in Hyderabad has 32 departments for Telangana and 38
departments for Andhra Pradesh, until recently.
Thousands of
employees of various wings have been discharging their duties here.
Uninterrupted supply of mineral water to the Secretariat has been going on for
several years. The respective departments are paying the bills for the packaged
drinking water on a monthly basis.
But the
suppliers did not bother to pay VAT. This is evident from the website
www.tgct.gov.in.
This RTI
correspondent of The Hans India found that the government treasury receives a
meagre share in the form of commercial tax from the suppliers of packaged
drinking water worth lakhs of rupees.
Even this
matter was taken to the notice of ‘Reward for Informers’, which is an
initiative of the government to track the evaders of commercial tax. The RTI
correspondent sought information from Vengala Rao Nagar Circle Commercial Tax
Officer under RTI Act.
According the
information provided by the Vengala Rao Nagar Circle Commercial Tax Officer, a
dealer, Satya Aqua Labs, who did not register for TOT, supplied packaged
drinking water in February of 2015 to the Combined Authentication and
Attestation at the Out Gate of the Secretariats of AP and TS.
The turnover
was Rs 1, 365 and the dealer evaded sales tax of just Rs 198. Again in March
the turnover was Rs 1, 575 and sales tax of Rs 228 should have been paid. A
fine of Rs 426 was levied for the tax evasion.
In case of
tax evasion, the officials are empowered to assess the taxes for the last four
to six years and impose double the tax as penalty which was supposed to have
been evaded. But in all the six cases which were revealed, that did not happen.
In another
instance, the Planning Department of Telangana alone paid Rs 5,670 for packaged
drinking water in March to Srimannarayana Agencies.
As per the
VAT Act, the suppliers should obtain GRN or TIN number. It is not sure how many
agencies are actually supplying water to the Secretariat. But all the
departments have been paying the bills generously to these suppliers.
The
commercial tax officers are turning a blind eye even though the regular
suppliers have not registered for TOT or VAT.
All these
irregularities are going on the premises where the Chief Minister and his
Cabinet members along with top brass are present. Incidentally, the portfolio
of the Commercial Tax is with the CM himself.
According to
the information obtained under RTI Act, the below mentioned suppliers of
packaged drinking water to the Secretariat did not register for VAT.
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