Tax Commissioner conducts surprise inspection

State Financial Commissioner (Taxation) Krishan Kumar on Thursday conducted a surprise check in the old market area, around Rainak Bazaar. He noted a common trend of selling items without bill and thus evading GST among shop owners. While the Commissioner only warned the shop keepers and interacted with a few customers, asking them if they had received bills for their purchases, the visit was a direct message to traders indulging in GST evasion.

The shop keepers, initially resisted the inspection of the teams, led by the IAS officer, as they saw him arriving with Deputy Commissioner Darveer Raj and Assistant Commissioner Sunil Kumar. They even alleged that their sales were getting affected due to such checks being done during the festival season, but the staff convinced them that they would not take any action today and would only issue them warnings. The officials also checked the bill books of some shops.

A GST Inspector said, “Although no action has been initiated against any offender, the shopkeepers have been asked to ensure that every customer is billed. Apart from making it necessary for traders and shop keepers to get a GST number, our department is focussing primarily on Business to Customer billing.”

Even though it was a state government holiday on account of Agrasen Jayanti on Thursday, Krishan Kumar checked about 40 shops. After Rainak Bazaar, the GST teams checked some dhabas, furniture, plywood, bags and stationery shops and asked them to bill customers under all circumstances. The surveys by the local teams continued today in other markets, too. The teams included GST Department ETOs Shailendra Kumar and Dharmendra and inspectors of the department.