Lid off major tax evasion

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 16

The UT Excise and Taxation Deparment has detected a major tax evasion and has recovered an amount of Rs 1.25 crore from a firm dealing in cold drinks.

Sources said the firm had deposited the tax. This was the highest amount recovered by the department from a single firm in the recent past. Ajit Balaji Joshi, Excise and Taxation Commissioner, confirmed that the department had detected a major tax evasion. He said such drives would continue.

The sources said the tax evasion by the firm, Eleven Excellence, came to light when officers got suspicious while checking the records of the returns filed by the company.

Ravinder Kaushik, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, ordered a probe after it was found that the firm had made a number of tax-free entries in the records to evade tax.

The department also recovered over Rs 30 lakh from shopkeepers selling books and uniforms of private schools after they were found guilty of tax evasion recently.

The department also found that over 200 traders in Shastri Market, Sector 22, had not deposited tax and issued notices to them.