Shawl Club India, a conglomerate of shawl manufacturers here, today took strong exception to the 'illegal' detention of stoles by the authorities concerned here.
The Shawl Club, in a letter brought to the notice of Punjab Excise and Taxation Commissioner Anurag Verma, a lacuna relating to the imposition of VAT on stoles and demanded that both shawls and stoles be treated at par.
Shawl Club General Secretary Piara Lal Seth stated in the letter that shawls are VAT free items as per the Punjab VAT Act-2005, and added that some officials are detaining the stoles and asking for the tax, though there is no difference between the two.
"Under two instances one brought to our notice by Kohli Transport Company and other by Nadda Transport Company, their goods were detained for the same reasons. If there is any miscommunication or lacuna the same should be corrected immediately," he asked in his letter.
He said the shawls are of many sizes and stoles are also shawls, but come in smaller sizes. The shawl is so popular in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other neighbouring countries, but the western influenced small shawl is in the market and named as stole.
"But as it is shawl only the VAT can not be applied on it," he said, and added that the stoles are too popular with the school and college girls and is manufactured under small scale industry and is already bracketed as VAT free.
He said the Enforcement Wing of the Department must be duly informed that the shawl can not be differentiated from the stole so that the manufacturers and the traders are not harassed unnecessarily and the stoles are not detained because they are nothing but small sized shawl.