Don’t take action till further orders, state told

Balwant Garg

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 3

An order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court directing the state government not to take coercive action for the recovery of 11 per cent entry tax on sugar till the further orders has left the Excise and Taxation Department and sugar traders in the area confused.

While the Excise and Taxation Department claimed that the high court order was applicable to a particular firm, the traders assume it was a general restriction.

The excise department had started collecting 11 per cent tax on the sugar coming into Punjab from other states after the Punjab Industries and Commerce Department issued a notification on May 29.After a sugar trader challenged this new tax in the high court, the court observed that before allowing the collection of the tax, it was necessary to examine under what power the Principal Secretary, Industries, and Commerce Department, Punjab, included sugar in the specified schedule of the department to impose 11 per cent entry tax on it.

So till further orders, there would not be coercive action to recover this tax, ordered Justice SJ Vazifdar, the acting CJ and Justice GS Sandhawalia. The court has issued a notice to the state government and the next hearing will be on September 8.

After the order by the high court, the Excise Department said the order was applicable only to the firm which challenged it in the court. However, the sugar traders of the area resisting the levying of this tax, saying the high court has stayed it.

For this contradictory view point, a large number of truck loads of sugar from UP are waiting for entry into Punjab at the Excise Department checkpost at Shambu on the Punjab-Haryana border.Vijay Garg, AETC-Import, at Shambu border said the high court orders were restricted to only one firm which approached the court. Sugar entering Punjab from other states was taxable at the rate of 11 per cent.

After the levying of the entry tax, there was over Rs 250 per quintal increase in the sugar rates in Punjab in the first week of June. Of the total consumption of sugar in the state, over 80 per cent comes from other states like Uttar Pradesh. Since June 1, every import of sugar from UP was burdened with 11 per cent extra tax. Sources said the state government imposed this huge tax on the import of sugar to protect the domestic sugar industry which was lagging much behind in competition with the UP sugar industry.It is quite disturbing that while the sugar rates per quintal in wholesale market in Maharashtra are between Rs 2,000-Rs 2,100 and Rs 2,200-Rs 2,300 in UP, in Punjab these prices are ranging between Rs 2,600-Rs 2,700.

As 11 per cent tax on sugar is a big burden on the consumers in Punjab, there is no such tax in any other part of the country, said Onkar Nath Goyal, president Punjab Karyana Association.