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Excise dept makes fresh bid to plug loopholes in tax collection
Hosiery gets relief from e-trip
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Memorial row: Sarna to withdraw petition, hold ‘path’ by Aug 1
Cong workers want ‘false cases’ withdrawn
BJP joins Congress chorus of probing charges against VC
Hardassa village Adarsh
school picture of neglect
Tributes paid to martyrs on Vijay Diwas
Govt forms panel to curtail its expenses
Maharaja’s daughters win assets worth
Rs 20,000 cr
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Excise dept makes fresh bid to plug loopholes in tax collection
Chandigarh, July 27 By asking the traders and businessmen to report all transactions, having a value of over Rs 50,000, the government is only looking at plugging the loopholes in the tax collection by putting to an end to under invoicing and fake billings. According to estimates, only 30,000 VAT dealers will have to go in for e-trip (transportation information within Punjab), whose daily transactions are over Rs 50,000. The total number of registered VAT dealers is over 2.21 lakh. The government hopes to collect an additional Rs 200 crore per annum as VAT by making e-trip mandatory and thus plugging the loopholes in the VAT collection. With the state government looking at increasing its VAT collections by 25 per cent in the current year, it is taking such measures to ensure that existing taxes are not evaded. A recent survey by the state Excise and Taxation Department revealed that just 625 VAT dealers in Punjab were contributing to nearly 90 per cent of the total VAT collection. The rest are either not paying VAT or hiding the total sales. The data collected by the Punjab Excise and Taxation Department shows that of the total 2,21,929 VAT dealers registered with the Excise and Taxation department, 1,24,908 do not pay any VAT at all, while 75,000 contribute over Rs 100 crore. The remaining 625 dealers are the real contributors to the state’s total VAT collection. Publicly, the stance taken by the traders and their associations for protesting against e-trip is that it will increase their paperwork and that the Excise Department’s website would crash often, thus slowing down the business. However, privately, they agreed it would make it difficult for businessmen to do under-invoicing. The traders rued that because of unequal taxation structures in the region (with tax sops to neighbouring hill states), industry and trade in the state was unable to flourish and many of them were making profits only by under invoicing.
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Hosiery gets relief from e-trip
E-trip (transportation information within Punjab) calls for information regarding intra-state movement of goods (within Punjab) to be furnished by traders making sales of Rs 50,000 or above in a single transaction on the website of the Excise and Taxation Department. This information is to be furnished for the trade of six commodities — iron and steel (excluding scrap), cotton, mustard, plywood, yarn and vegetable oil (edible and non-edible). Hosiery comes under the cotton as well as yarn categories. The decision came following a meeting between the members of the Ludhiana Hosiery Manufacturers’ Association and officials of the excise department in Patiala today. Among others, SS Gulhati, Additional Commissioner, Excise and Taxation, Punjab; Jaspal Garg, Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner, (VAT) and Bhupinder Gupta, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Ludhiana, were present. Association president Naveen Sood said it was a major relief to the hosiery units. “We told the officials that 90 per cent of the hosiery manufacturers had no access to computers as it was primarily a small-scale cottage industry. Secondly, the department itself has to improve its infrastructure in Ludhiana. In the current circumstaces, it will not be able to provide e-trip passwords to more than 75 per cent of the targeted units. It will take another six months to cover the entire hosiery industry under the scheme. “We told the officials that we are ready to cooperate with them, but a similar stand along with facilities is expected from the department as well,” said Sood. He said their e-trip would now be furnished by the transporters, through whom they send their goods. “The transporters are already feeding the data as they have to get everything checked at barriers. Now, they will be filing our e-trips too,” said Sood. Suresh Dhir, president of Dal Bazaar Merchant Association, said the officials also agreed that trade related documents of the hosiery manufacturers would now onwards be checked only in their home districts. Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner Gupta confirmed the development. Excise and Taxation Commissioner Anurag Verma said a lot of confusion still persisted on the e-trip system. “It is up to the hosiery manufacturers to decide whether they will file their e-trip or their transporter will do so. We want that e-trip has to be filed even if hosiery goods are to be sent from Ludhiana to Sahnewal (a distance of around 30 km)," said
Verma. Some solace
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Memorial row: Sarna to withdraw petition, hold ‘path’ by Aug 1
Amritsar, July 27 Talking to The Tribune, Sarna said he had already set the ball rolling for withdrawal of the petition in the Delhi High Court by asking his counsel to initiate the process. He said he will hold the 'path' at Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib on July 30, thus obeying the Akal Takht's directions. The 'bhog' ceremony of the 'path' will take place on August 1, he said. He, however, said the Akal Takht should now also ask the DSGMC to share its plan about the construction of the memorial. Though Sarna had agreed to abide by the Takht directions, Sikh intellectuals have expressed divergent views on his argument that the memorial should not be built in the premises of Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib. Noted scholar Bhai Ashok Singh Bagarian said though there was no such 'maryada' that a memorial could not be built in a gurdwara premises, he too felt it was not appropriate. "A memorial is a place meant for the entire mankind and the people from all communities visit it. Therefore, it should be outside a gurdwara campus." Former SGPC Secretary Manjeet Singh Calcutta also supported Sarna. On the other hand, radical Sikh outfit Dal Khalsa leader Kanwarpal Singh said the Sikhs should "draw satisfaction from the fact that they were constructing the memorial and that location was a secondary issue"He said there was nothing wrong in building a memorial in a gurdwara campus if it neither violated 'maryada' nor diluted the holiness of a shrine. He said there may not be any such precedent in the history, but people's perception keeps developing with time.
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Cong workers want ‘false cases’ withdrawn
Ropar, July 27 They also submitted a memorandum to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Inder Mohan Singh. Hundreds of Congress workers, including women, gathered at Ranjit Singh Bagh before moving towards the mini secretariat where the police stopped them from entering the building. Agitated, the Congress workers raised slogans against the police and the state government. Later a few leaders were allowed to submit a memorandum to the SSP. Bittu said the district police had become a puppet in the hands of the SAD-BJP alliance. He said Congress workers were being tortured mentally and physically at the behest of the state government. Chamkaur Sahib MLA Charanjit Singh Channi said on Thursday, the district police had registered a criminal case against Bant Singh Kalaran who had unsuccessfully contested the panchayat elections that were held recently. In another example of police high-handedness, Block Samiti member Gurpreet Singh from Chaunta Bhaini and his 80-year-old father were booked in a false case, Channi said. Kharar MLA Jagmohan Singh Kang said if the police did not withdraw the false cases, they would stage another protest on July 30 at Bunga Sahib. Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Pratap Singh Bajwa is scheduled to address a rally at Bunga Sahib on July 30. CVC probe sought into copter purchase The Congress has sought a probe by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) into the process adopted by the SAD-BJP government in the purchase of a helicopter worth Rs 38 crore. Punjab Congress spokesperson Sukhpal Khaira said the state government had purchased a 429 model helicopter from Bell Textron. "Throwing all norms to the winds, the government procured quotations from four international manufacturers for purchasing the helicopter. The government never thought it appropriate to call for global tenders," he said.
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BJP joins Congress chorus of probing charges against VC
Jalandhar, July 27 In a letter to state BJP chief Kamal Sharma, Kumar has asked him to investigate the charges and submit a report to the party high command for requisite action. Taking a serious note of the complaint of JK Anand, president of the Anti-Corruption Society, Jalandhar, Kumar wrote the letter to Sharma. In the letter, Kumar had mentioned that Anand had given him a list of cases in which Dr Arora had accommodated relatives of BJP leaders at various levels in the university in violation of the norms. Being busy in a meeting in Chandigarh, Sharma was not available for comments. Earlier, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Partap Singh Bajwa had also sought removal of the VC and even wrote to the Governor seeking action against Arora for his alleged involvement in cases of corruption. On July 22, demanding removal of the VC, members of the All India PTU DEP Learning Centres’ Association, teachers and students from across the state blocked the Jalandhar-Kapurthala highway for more than three hours in front of the university complex. Dr Arora could not be contacted.
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Awardee teacher suspended for mercilessly thrashing girl
Sangrur, July 27 Deputy District Education Officer (Secondary) Balwinder Singh confirmed the development. The teacher, Rajinder Kaur, has been accused of taking revenge on the student, Ramandeep Kaur, for an incident that reportedly occurred outside the school. While on her way to the school in the morning, Ramandeep’s bicycle is learnt to have hit the teacher’s car, which damaged the number plate of the latter’s vehicle. Though Rajinder Kaur let Ramandeep go then, she allegedly beat her up in the school till the latter fell unconscious. The girl was taken to a hospital for treatment. A police complaint against the teacher was lodged yesterday, but it was only after the students and their parents took to the streets today that the Education Department acted and placed her services under suspension. The protesters also staged a dharna outside the Longowal police station. Addressing the gathering, Sangrur Member of Parliament Vijay Inder Singla said it was a “matter of shame that a state awardee teacher had indulged in such an act”. Singla said he had also taken up the issue with the Sangrur Deputy Commissioner and the Education Secretary, Punjab. Senior Superintendent of Police Mandip Singh Sidhu said the teacher was arrested but bailed out later. Act of ‘vengeance’
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Hardassa village Adarsh
school picture of neglect
Ferozepur, July 27 Since the school lacks basic infrastructure, it is no surprise that the number of students has dwindled from 1,800 to 1,087 over the last few months. Moreover, even though it has been four months since the current academic session began, the students have not been provided with any books or uniforms. Vice-Principal Karamvir Kaur said the teachers were spending money from their own pockets to provide notes to the students. Even the 66-member staff has not been paid salaries for the last four months. “We are finding it extremely difficult to run the schools now,” said Punjabi teacher Rupinder Kaur, who travels 45 km daily to get to the school. Earlier, the school was being run by BIS Educational Society, but following allegations regarding bungling of funds, the school was later handed over to Delhi-based Educomp Solutions Limited. But, the fortunes of the school did not change. A visit to the school premises by The Tribune team revealed that the computers were not functional, library did not have any books, the classrooms did not have any windows/doors and exposed electricity wires in the walls. “All our efforts to contact Educomp and government functionaries have proved futile till now,” said Nisha Thukral, another staff member. “We do not have any facilities to hold sports events or other co-curricular activities in the school and these are vital for the overall development of the pupils,” said Gurinder Singh. Pulak Aggarwal, Senior Manager (Operations), Educomp Solutions Ltd, said they had already conveyed to the state government about their inability to run these schools any longer. Deputy Commissioner MS Narang said he had already informed Anjali Bhawra, Principal Secretary, (School Education), about the matter.
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Tributes paid to martyrs on Vijay Diwas
Ferozepur, July 27 Several events were organised to mark the fourteenth anniversary of the war. Earlier, the GOC, Golden Arrow Division, laid a wreath at Barki Memorial to pay tribute to the heroes of the Kargil War. The function was also attended by senior officials of civil administration and war veterans. Kargil Diwas Mela was also organised in the cantonment to showcase the heroism of the soldiers who fought in the Himalayas. Infantry and Artillery equipment was put on display and thousands of schoolchildren attended the event.
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Govt forms panel to curtail its expenses
Chandigarh, July 27 This committee would work on reducing the expenditure of various departments, especially non-plan expenditure, to bring more transparency in the financial working of departments. Officials in the Finance Department said the committee would look into rationalising the salaries and examine the pension bill of the state government, interest payments, subsidies, economic services in various sectors, tax collection, social services, loans to public enterprises, etc. The committee would look into the expenditure incurred by various departments for the last five years. The chairman of the committee will be the Chief Secretary of Punjab, while Vice Chairman of the State Planning Board has been incorporated as the special invitee. The Principal Secretary, Finance, Secretary, Planning and Special Secretary to Chief Minister of Punjab, have been included as members. The Secretary, Expenditure, would work as a convener of the committee, said an official press release. The committee might also invite any other Administrative Secretary/officers to the meeting as per requirement, the release added.
Committee’s objectives
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In a major relief to the hosiery industry, the state Excise and Taxation Department today announced that their e-trip (above Rs 50,000) will now be filed by transporters through whom the manufacturers will send their goods.
Former Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Paramjeet Singh Sarna today said he will withdraw the petition against the construction of the 1984 Sikh Genocide Memorial in New Delhi and also hold an
'akhand path' at Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib before Thursday (August 1), as per the Akal Takht directions.
Congress workers, led by Member of Parliament Ravneet Singh Bittu and MLAs Jagmohan Singh Kand and Charanjit Singh Kang, protested against the alleged implication of party members in false
cases by the local police here today. They also submitted a memorandum to Senior Superintendent of Police
(SSP) Inder Mohan Singh.
Ludhiana, July 27