Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema
Punjab Finance, Planning, Excise and Taxation Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema said that an investigation conducted by the enforcement wing of the state’s tax department has unearthed a fake billing scam worth thousands of crores. He said that two firms dealing in gold have collected Rs. 860 crores have been found to have prepared fake bills and 303 firms dealing in iron have received Rs. 4044 crore fake bills have been created. Apart from this, 68 companies registered their firms in the name of others and engaged in fake billing of Rs.533 crore.
Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema gave detailed information about these matters during a press conference at Punjab Bhavan. He said that after investigating a firm dealing in gold in Amritsar, the Enforcement Wing found that the sale and purchase of gold by this firm was Rs. 336 crore worth of fake bills were created. He said that the registration of the two firms from which the firm had purchased gold has been canceled and no further purchase of gold has been made by these firms.
Referring to a Ludhiana-based firm that was involved in similar manipulations in gold transactions, the finance minister said that the firm had swindled Rs. 424 crore was bought and sold gold with fake bills. He said that in this case also the registration of the two firms from which the said firm has shown purchase of gold has been canceled and in this case also no further purchase of gold has been made by these firms.
Apart from this, giving information about the sale and purchase of forged iron worth Rs 4044 crore by 303 companies, the Finance Minister said that 11 firms are from Punjab, 86 firms are from other states and 206 firms are registered. with the Central Govt. He said that 217 companies registered in Center and Punjab have Rs. 89.7 crores of ITC outstanding, which has been withheld by the central and state governments. He said that in this case a total of Rs. 707 crore fake ITC was claimed. He said that the state tax department has taken action against all the 11 companies and canceled or suspended their registration and action is underway as per law, while the list of remaining 206 companies has been given to the concerned authorities of the central government.
Referring to the efforts being made by the state to curb tax evasion, the Finance Minister said that the Punjab Tax Department is linking GST registration in the state with ‘Aadhaar’ based biometric authentication so that people who register in the name of others can identify and nab those involved in time. He said that the Punjab government under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has been able to ensure over 13 percent growth due to initiatives like establishment of Tax Intelligence Unit (TIU), and State Intelligence and Preventive Unit (SIPU) etc. The rate in GST collection was limited to only 6 percent during the previous government.
During this press conference, along with the Finance Minister, Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Finance Commissioner (Tax) Vikas Pratap, Excise and Taxation Commissioner Varun Ruzam and Joint Commissioner (Tax) Jaskaran Singh Brar were also present.
