Car Traders In State Under Excise Scanner

Car traders crosswise the state are under the scanner of the Excise and Taxation Department after a trader in the city of Bathinda was discovered evading taxes and bagging the tax sum. The Punjab Excise and Taxation section has asked for a probe into it.

The car trader had inhibited purchases and sales around Rs 118 crore. The section has already made a recovery of Rs 12.5 crore from the trader that would be adjusted against the fine and pending duty.

Mr. Anurag Verma, Punjab Excise and Taxation Commissioner stated that information was found that M/s Mehta Motors of Bathinda was supposedly not making payment of tax in full on novel vehicles sold by it. The firm was a trader of Tata Motors, Renault.

“I directed the search Wing of the section to get data regarding the vehicles sold by the manufacturers through this dealer. When the data was received, it was found that between April 1, 2009 and September 30, 2012, the dealer had purchased cars worth Rs 175 crore, but had shown purchases worth Rs 57 crore only, thus suppressed an amount of Rs 118 crore,” Mr. Anurag stated.

The technique of the trader was to pass on vehicles outside the state and send these straightly to the clientele.

“The tax deposited by the vehicle proprietors was pocketed by the trader and never deposited in such cases,” added Verma.

Officers of the section stated that the trader had a tax burden of around Rs 15 crore. “This amounts to cheating and we would write to the police to register a case after the penalty amount is recovered,” they added.

Verma has asked for a investigation in order to determine whether functionaries of the section were also involved with the trader.

The section has further asked for inspection of records of all the vehicle traders in Punjab.