Harassment By Excise & Taxation Department Of Punjab Increasing: Badish Jindal

Ludhiana, April 28, 2015: Badish Jindal, President, FOPSIA and President, MSME Facilitation Center; and Aditaya Gupta, Secretary: MSME Facilitation Center, in a joint statement issued today said the harassment by the Excise & Taxation Department of Punjab is increasing day by day. 

They added daily the department is harassing assesses for bogus purchases and even deducted crores of rupees on account of purchases made from the bogus units. The act says that without assessment the department cannot claim any amount from its buyer. But to collect the amount from multiple persons the department is putting the penalties without any assessment. 

“With this the honest persons are forced to pay for the fraud companies”, they said, adding, the refunds are blocked with a reason of fourth stage verification which is fully illegal.” They alleged the department officers and middlemen are earning huge amounts with this illegal process. 

Further, they said A few days back the Federation of Punjab Small Industries Associations (MSME Facilitation Center) filed an RTI for the information that: How many units you have declared BOGUS in Punjab; Total Amount of Bogus refund issued; Number of court cases filed against bogus registration; and Number of officers detained & suspended under bogus claims. “Surprisingly the answer of the department was nil for  2,3, & 4, they said, adding that means so far no bogus unit declared by the department; No Bogus refund issued to any person; No case filed against any bogus unit; and No officer detained or suspended for issuing the bogus refunds. But the department is harassing assesses on the name of bogus transactions and purchases.

They added recently an illegal notice was issued by the department to a micro unit for recovery of Rs.600379 against the bogus purchases. But when FOPSIA raised the issue of RTI the department surprisingly took back the notice on the same day and a fresh notice was issued, they said, adding the department changed the wording from bogus purchase to in genuine purchases and wrote that early notice taken back due to clerical mistake. The department even did not bother to do the assessment of three companies. No efforts were made to recover the amounts from these units and by giving a soft corner their liabilities were shifted to the honest persons with vested interest of the department officials.

The FOPSIA have raised the issue with the Punjab CM and DCM & higher officials of the department and planning to go to court against such illegal decisions of the department, they revealed.