Unbilled sale of products, Bill swapping & Bogus billing on high rise in Punjab: FOPSIA

Ludhiana, Apr 23 (KNN) The unbilled sale of finished products, Bill Swapping and Bogus Billing are on high rise in state which is proving havoc for the state industries and exchequer as well, said Federation of Punjab Small Industry Association (FOPSIA) President, Badish Jindal.

In this regard, Jindal has also dashed-off a letter to Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amrender Singh that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) department in the state is becoming den of corruption.

''The department of GST in our state is under the preview of your ministry but unfortunately the department is becoming the den of corruption. Recently, few officers of the department shown some courage to break the chain of bogus billing but at ground level the situation is worst. Even after the various amendments the bogus billing cannot be curtailed until departments intend to do it,'' FOPSIA president said in the letter.

Quoting several news and evidences, Jindal further said that even during Value Added Tax (VAT) regime the states bogus billing crossed Rs 50000 crores and trend remains same during the GST regimes.

''Shockingly, the accused officers of department (as per list provided to us by department under RTI) are promoted and placed on important positions,'' the letter read further.

The sales of auto parts, hardware, electrical, Bicycle, Garments, Tools, Household equipment’s, construction related material are sold unbilled openly in market. We have sent few complaints of with evidence of their unbilled receipts but again the department remained mum on the issue, Jindal said.

''There is no doubt that without the connivance of the officers such activities are possible in the state. So many, times, we have raised the issue with your office and states higher tax authorities but unfortunately, they shown no interest in unearthing the biggest mess of our state,'' Jindal asserted.

Even in case of Mr. B K Birdi we had received the complaint with evidences from our Jalandhar member in 2013 and same was forwarded to the department but unfortunately the department shown no interest in investigating the complaint against the then Assistant Exercise and Taxation Commissioners (AETC), he said.

He further said that most of the officers in GST regime are officers of VAT regime. These officers were fully failed to curb the bogus billing in the state which resulted to the huge losses of the exchequer and on other hand thousands of assesses in state were penalized on the ground of fourth stage verification.

''Once again we request you to take and initiative for inter departmental transfers, beside this the frequent transfers are require of top ranked officers, the officers with bad track record and bad track record of bogus billing in their area shall be transferred to other departments,'' Jindal suggested.