H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

Opposition walkout on power rates hike issue
Shimla, December 18
The Opposition Congress today staged a walk-out in the Vidhan Sabha over the refusal of the government to provide relief to domestic consumers who have been hit hard by the recent power tariff hike.

10 traders held for tax evasion
Shimla, December 18
Detection of tax evasion on the basis of fake Treasury receipts by the Excise and Sales Tax Department at Paonta Sahib has revealed the extent to which unscrupulous traders can go to make money at the cost of the state exchequer.

Childhood lost in hard labour
Parwanoo
The day the country observed Human Rights Day, five-year-old Rajni, was putting her life in danger doing acrobatics on a rope held tight 10 feet above the ground with the help of bamboo poles. To attract people to her show, her brother, Pratap, was beating a drum with full force.

Opposition walkout on power rates hike issue
Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 18
The Opposition Congress today staged a walk-out in the Vidhan Sabha over the refusal of the government to provide relief to domestic consumers who have been hit hard by the recent power tariff hike.

Mr Virbhadra Singh, Leader of the Opposition, who was on his legs as soon as Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, finished his detailed reply to the discussion on the issue, pointed out that although Mr Dhumal had shown concern for domestic consumers, who were bearing the brunt of the hike, he had not announced any relief for them.

He said the assurance that the power board would be advised not to demand any increase from the domestic consumers’ category in its next power tariff application before the state Electricity Regulatory Commission would not serve any meaningful purpose.

After this, all Congress members led by Mr Virbhadra Singh walked out in protest. Earlier in his reply, Mr Dhumal justified the increase in power tariff and quoting comparative figures of the Congress regime asserted that the hike was not exceptional as made out by the Opposition.

He said the Congress government had revised the tariff thrice between 1994 and 1997 and the overall increase came to 55.29 per cent whereas his government over the past four years had hiked it by 48.63 per cent.

He said under the provisions of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission Act, power could not be supplied to any category of consumers at less than 50 per cent of the average cost of the supply. The average cost was 2.46 per unit whereas the 78,770 Antyodaya families were being supplied the same at 70 paise per unit and 12.50 lakh general consumer who required upto 45 units per month were getting it at 85 paise per unit.

He said the state was passing through a financially difficult phase and as such it was not possible to supply electricity to domestic consumers at lower rates. Once the under-construction projects like Nathpa-Jhakri, Baspa, Larji and Chamera-II were completed, the state would be in a position to lower the rates.

Many of these projects would have been functional by now had the previous congress regime started work on them in the right earnest by providing adequate funds.

The harsh reality was that only 299 mw out of the total hydel power potential of 21,000 mw had been exploited by the state power board over the past 40 years. Not only that, the Congress had scrapped an agreement signed by the BJP government for the execution of 2051 mw Parbati project. It had provided only Rs 63 crore over a period of 11 years for the Larji project, whereas his government had released Rs 217 crore in three years. It was now likely to be completed by 2004.

Mr Dhumal admitted that there was a need to bring down the transmission and distribution (T&D) losses, which stood at 25 per cent. He rebutted the Congress charge that big industrial units had been given relief by reducing tariff and said the new kVAh-based tariff had been introduced only to encourage industries to make efficient use of energy. It would go a long way in reducing the T and D losses.

Initiating the discussion, Mr Virbhadra Singh, alleged that the government had provided relief to industrial consumers at the cost of poor domestic consumers who were not in a position to pay. He said the board’s revenue from domestic consumers was Rs 70.41 crore before the hike. It had gone up by Rs 20.02 crore, an increase of 28.44 per cent.

In contrast, the tariff for bulk industrial consumer had been reduced to give them a benefit of Rs 12 crore. Logically, the tariff for industrial consumer should have been also increased in the same proportion. The anomaly reflected the “pro-industrialist” and “anti-poor” bias of the government.

Instead of taxing the domestic consumer, the board should have generated additional resources by checking T and D losses and improving its functioning.

He expressed surprise over the response of the Himachal Vikas Congress which was opposed to the power tariff hike and critical of various other policies but continued to support the government.

Mr Sukh Ram, HVC President, underlined the need to create a competitive environment in the state to bring down the cost of projects. The Malana power company had shown the way by completing the project in less than three years.

Electricity could be made available to the hill people at cheap rates only if the 50 per cent central subsidy for micro and mini hydel projects was revived. At present no project would be able to generate power at Rs 3 per unit.

Mrs Vidya Stokes, Pradesh Congress Committee chief, said the so-called hydel power revolution would have no meaning for the people if they could not get electricity at reasonable rates. The government should reduce its unproductive expenditure and increase efficiency to bridge the revenue gap instead of burdening the poor consumers.

Mr Kaul Singh said the government was keen to dole out concessions to big industrialists and least concerned about the petty domestic consumers. He said that the reduction in industrial power tariff had in just one month benefited the ACC cement plant to the extent of Rs 25.62 lakh.

Dr Rajiv Bindal, Mr B.R.Mandyal and Mr Rangila Ram Rao also participated in the discussion.

10 traders held for tax evasion
Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 18
Detection of tax evasion on the basis of fake Treasury receipts by the Excise and Sales Tax Department at Paonta Sahib has revealed the extent to which unscrupulous traders can go to make money at the cost of the state exchequer.

This is for the first time that the department has come across such a fraud. The modus operandi was simple. Instead of depositing tax with the bank and obtaining a receipt from the Treasury on the basis of scroll number, these traders appended fake receipts with their sales tax returns. The signatures of Treasury officers were forged and fake seals of the Treasury and bank used.

In all, 14 firms of Paonta Sahib were found to be using this modus operandi to evade tax during random checking. They defrauded the department of over Rs 7 lakh in the first two quarters of the current year in this manner.

A case has been registered and 10 traders have been arrested on charges of cheating and fraud. This, the officials say is only the tip of the iceberg. Of the over 28,000 registered dealers in the state, the records of only about 100 have been checked. If the modus operandi was adopted by even 5 per cent of the traders, the total evasion could be up to Rs 40 crore annually.

The department uncovered the fraud accidentally while analysing the reasons for decline in sales tax revenue in Sirmaur district as against an average growth of 30 per cent in the rest of the state. While the sales tax returns showed an increase, the figures from the Treasury did not corroborate it. A closer scrutiny revealed that the Treasury receipts appended with the returns were fake and no tax had been actually deposited with the Treasury.

Earlier this month, the department had detected evasion of tax by misusing one of the three copies of bills for carrying two consignments of goods. The traders kept one of the copies of the bills blank and later used it.

The traders have devised several ingenious methods of tax evasion. When the department started physical checking of consignments at the barriers some traders never brought the trucks into the state but received the consignments on paper and dispatched them to distant places. The fraud was detected when the department noticed that certain firms from Parwanoo were supplying goods to traders as far as Kangra.

Childhood lost in hard labour
M.M. Bhandari

Parwanoo
The day the country observed Human Rights Day, five-year-old Rajni, was putting her life in danger doing acrobatics on a rope held tight 10 feet above the ground with the help of bamboo poles. To attract people to her show, her brother, Pratap, was beating a drum with full force.

Pratap says, they belong to Bilaspur in Uttar Pradesh and performing such tricks is their traditional profession. He says there are a number of families in BIlaspur that train their children in such acrobatics and other tricks. They go out to other places in search a living. Pratap and his sister earn from Rs 50 to Rs 150 a day from their open-air shows. The fate of these ‘self-employed’ children is no better than that of hundreds of others who work in farms, shops, dhabas etc. Going to school does not figure even in their dreams. In the industrial area of Parwanoo, a number of small children are seen rummaging through garbage heaps for anything of small value that they can find. At the main bus stop children are seen polishing shoes and even begging.