Large-scale evasion of commercial tax

​Hyderabad: The Commercial Tax Department has been turning Nelson’s eye to the large scale of tax evasion in the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station for the last twenty years.

Thousands of buses ply to various neighbouring states from the second largest bus station in Asia every day carrying lakhs of people.

However, the business houses who have turnovers running into several lakhs of rupees every month seldom pay any tax to the government for reasons better known to the authorities.

The Vigilance and Enforcement department of the Commercial Taxes department which is supposed to identify the tax evaders and impose penalties on them has remained a silent spectator.

The unholy alliance of the Vigilance, Commercial tax officials and the traders has been causing a major dent to the treasury of the State government.

Moreover, the Commercial Tax department which is held by none other than Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has totally neglected the Reward for Informer system.

For the first time the tax evasion by the traders of Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station was revealed through an RTI application way back in 2010. The RTI applicant informed the then Commissioner of the Commercial Department of the united Andhra Pradesh.

However, the information with evidence was suppressed. The RTI activist once again sought information in 2013 from the Commercial Tax department about the action initiated against tax evaders of Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station.

In response to the RTI application, the officials Gowliguda branch of the Commercial Tax department assessed the business of 23 traders and confirmed that all of them fall under Value Added Tax Act.

They had even served notices to the traders to pay tax which run into several lakhs of rupees. Not a single trader paid a single paisa to the department till date. Strangely, the department did not initiate any action for recovering the taxes from them.

At the most they had frozen the deposits the traders paid to the RTC. It is mandatory that every trader who had a turnover of more than Rs 7.5 lakh falls under Turnover Tax (TOT) Act and the traders who had a turnover of more than Rs 50 lakh falls under VAT Act.

The officials of the department are supposed to recognise the tax evaders and collect tax with penalty. However, the department did not collect the tax for the last six years. Moreover, the traders have been paying rents to the RTC running into several lakhs of rupees.

The RTI activist once again submitted a petition to the Gowliguda circle office of the department under Reward for Informer scheme.

it has been sought the details of the copies of assessment orders served on the traders, the details of penalties imposed on each trader, the names of the officials responsible for preparing assessment orders and imposing penalties on the traders, the names of trading firms, the registration numbers of these firms among others.

The department officials stated in the incomplete information letter that there are no assessment records, the total number of registrations is 21, the VAT registrations are 14 and TOT registrations are 7, and the circle officers will do the assessment after receiving authorisation from the divisional deputy commissioner at Abids.

The Telangana government on May 26, 2015 issued GO No 67 Revenue (CT-1) Department introducing Reward System for Informants by paying 10 per cent of the additional revenue resulting out of the information furnished by the informer subject to a maximum of Rs 50,000. The GO also approved procedure for administering rewards to the informers.

It is crystal clear that the Commercial Tax department officials are placing hurdles in the collection of taxes which is the major revenue to the government.

hey are supposed to investigate into the complaints of tax evasion after receiving the complaints from informers. However, the Gowliguda branch of the department did not assess even a single trader, which is evident in the reply to the RTI application.

The PIO of Gowliguda branch of the tax department in his reply to the RTI application stated that Nandini Bakery of the MG Bus Station had two VAT registrations and one of them was cancelled on ay 20, 2016.