ANGUL GST ENFORCEMENT SQUAD COLLECTED FINES OVER 35 LACS

Dhiramohan Ray,Odishabarta

TALCHER:In the biggest ever crack down by the Angul GST Enforcement Unit headed by Deputy Commissioner Pramod Kumar Sahoo, a jeweller of Angul was reportedly fined over rupees thirty-five lakhs for possessing unaccounted stock in contravention of various provisions of OGST Act. The tax raid, that started Monday had lasted more than seventeen hours and had resulted in collection of record amount of fine from a single business house named Vanita Jeweller located at Shanti Bazar in the heart of Angul Dist Head Quarter. Deputy Commissioner of GST Enforcement ShriSahoo had declined to comment on the matter though, the fact of payment of record amount of fine by the jeweller was confirmed by unofficial department and bank sources.

After roll out of GST, many cases of tax frauds have come to light. Fraudulent businesses have mushroomed at the cost of honest taxpayers. The dishonest businesses are ruling the roost in mining, transportation, hotels, hospitality, works contract and food sectors owing to inaction by GST Enforcement department. The recent arrest of a Chartered Accountant from Jharsuguda must force the tax department to have a rethink about its ability to combat sophisticated tax frauds. There’s an urgent need to augment the quality of enforcement by gathering of local intelligence about unscrupulous tax behaviour of persons.