Excise officials under lens for incentives to ineligible units

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, February 20

Officials of the Excise and Taxation Department (ETD) have come under scanner for extending the concessional rate of tax to ineligible industries, falling under the negative list, and causing high pollution in Sirmaur district which caused a loss worth Rs 7,42,24,311 to the state exchequer.

The government has notified that the industries falling under the negative list are not eligible for concessional rate of 1.5 per cent for Central Sales Tax.

The audit had pointed out that seven industrial units had manufactured goods which fell in the category of negative list due to their polluting nature. These goods included craft paper, writing and printing paper, GI pipes, MS scaffolding, SS ingots, MS bars, Tor, TMT bars, non alloys, steel hot-rolled products, rubber reclaims, etc.

The audit report, conducted for 2018-19, pointed out that though these items fell in the negative list, ETD officials, finalising the assessment cases of these seven units in contravention of the government notification, allowed concessional rate of 1.5 per cent tax to these. This caused a loss of Rs 7,42,24,311 to the exchequer for the assessment year 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Interestingly, in reply to the audit objections, the officials stated that Form-I, issued by the Industries Department, had mentioned that the sale of steel and iron products in their units, mini steel plant, manufacture and sale of craft paper, various types of writing, printing and other paper by Ruchira Paper Ltd do not fall under the negative list.

This reply was, however, not acceptable to the audit officials because as per the government notification, these items fell in the negative list which are hence not eligible for this concessional rate of sales tax incentive.

The audit officials have also pointed out that these seven units Ruchira Paper Ltd, Padmavati Steel, Amba Industrial Corporation, Saboo Tor, Rediant Cement Company, Vashishth Alloys and Shivalik Rubber Industries should be re-examined as per the government’s notification and appropriate action should be taken accordingly.

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