Not even half of the traders are filing return with the commercial tax department in Chhattisgarh. According to department officials, 71,000 traders are registered with the commercial tax department in the state.
Of them, only 30,000 are filing their tax returns regularly, the officials said. The state government is, however, taking stringent action against the traders for tax evasion. Besides launching special campaign, the government had threatened police action against the traders.
Those who have set up bogus firms for tax evasion will now find themselves behind the bars, commercial tax minister Amar Agrawal said. The officials have been asked to lodge complaint with police against such traders, he added.
The department is mooting a proposal to seize the movable and immovable properties of traders who are not filing the tax returns for many years.
The traders who have paid less commercial tax in the last fiscal have also come under the scanner of the department.
Officials have been asked to prepare the list of such traders and examine their returns in the past two years, Agrawal said.
The department will intensify its campaign to crack down on the traders for recovering unpaid tax. In the past three months, the department had taken action against 19 industrialists and traders who had evaded commercial tax to the tune of Rs 1.84 crore.