UP trade tax mop-up gathers steam
Vishal Sharma
New Delhi/ Agra. With the financial year coming to a close, the UP trade tax department has become more vigilant in an attempt to achieve the annual tax collection targets for various districts of the state.
The annual tax target of the department was Rs 11,650 crore. Till February, the target was Rs 9,713 crore, against which the department has so far collected Rs 9,958 crore, which was a record tax recovery in the past 10 years. For Agra, the target was Rs 463 crore and the collection so far has been at Rs 385 crore.
To make up for the balance, the department has now strengthened its grip on Central government departments like the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) which buys building materials in bulk from manufacturing companies and then sell the material from their stores to the contractors without paying any trade tax on the sale even though this is a direct sale of the building material with the central government departments acting as mere stockists.
According to department sources, the department recently froze the accounts of the CPWD in Agra to recover the tax on the sales of cement and other building material by the department to its contractors after which the CPWD had to pay Rs 4.56 lakh as trade tax for defreezing its accounts.
Additional Commissioner Trade Tax J P Srivastava said to increase the tax recovery before the end of the fiscal year, the department had recently introduced a scheme for businessmen who will be given a 90 per cent rebate on the interest on their residual tax if they paid up the tax before March 31, 2006. Already, he said, Hind Lamps Ltd of Firozabad had been given a rebate of Rs 3 crore on the tax.
The annual tax target of the department was Rs 11,650 crore. Till February, the target was Rs 9,713 crore, against which the department has so far collected Rs 9,958 crore, which was a record tax recovery in the past 10 years. For Agra, the target was Rs 463 crore and the collection so far has been at Rs 385 crore.
To make up for the balance, the department has now strengthened its grip on Central government departments like the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) which buys building materials in bulk from manufacturing companies and then sell the material from their stores to the contractors without paying any trade tax on the sale even though this is a direct sale of the building material with the central government departments acting as mere stockists.
According to department sources, the department recently froze the accounts of the CPWD in Agra to recover the tax on the sales of cement and other building material by the department to its contractors after which the CPWD had to pay Rs 4.56 lakh as trade tax for defreezing its accounts.
Additional Commissioner Trade Tax J P Srivastava said to increase the tax recovery before the end of the fiscal year, the department had recently introduced a scheme for businessmen who will be given a 90 per cent rebate on the interest on their residual tax if they paid up the tax before March 31, 2006. Already, he said, Hind Lamps Ltd of Firozabad had been given a rebate of Rs 3 crore on the tax.
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