The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), in a recent report on the revenue receipts of the Jharkhand government, has revealed that the state government had incurred a loss of Rs 663.08 crore due to non-levy, short levy of tax and penalty by the state’s commercial taxes department.
The audit report of the CAG for the year ended 31 March 2008 said that during 2007-08, the department accepted non/short levy of tax and penalty, irregular allowance of exemption/application of incorrect rate of tax and so on of Rs 171 crore in 109 cases of which 83 cases involving Rs 138.40 crore were pointed out in audit during 2007-08 and rest in earlier years.
The CAG report had mentioned a few illustrative cases involving a loss of revenue of Rs 294.95 crore including review of “Evasion of Sales tax on goods received from outside/within the state”.
The report criticised the working of the Bureau of Investigation of the state’s commercial tax department and said that the instructions issued for conducting inspection to the business premises as well as vehicles for prevention of tax evasion, survey and cross verification of various declaration forms, sales tax returns and records and transactions against declaration forms C, F and H for claiming exemption from levy of sales tax on the sale in course of export were not followed.
The CAG has recommended for strengthening the Bureau of Investigation wing and Vigilance and Monitoring wings of the commercial tax department.