CAG finds under-assessment of Rs 2,279 crore in Haryana ST, excise, stamp duty, MV tax

Bhartesh Singh Thakur  

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Tribune News Service  

Chandigarh, March 19  

The Comptroller and Auditor General has found under-assessment or revenue loss of Rs 2,279 crore in 9,836 cases of Sales Tax/Value Added Tax (VAT), state excise duty, stamp duty and registration fees, and taxes on vehicles in Haryana.

In its report on the revenue sector of Haryana for 2018-19, tabled during the Budget session, as many as 1,800 cases of short levy of stamp duty and registration fees, and other irregularities of Rs 72.57 crore were revealed.

The CAG also carried out a performance audit of computerisation initiatives for property registration. The deficiency in the mapping of business rules in the system resulted in a short levy of stamp duty and registration fees of Rs 22.56 crore.

A test check of records revealed that 282 sale deeds of immovable properties, registered between August 2015 and January 2019, having area per purchaser less than 1,000 sq yards were liable to be assessed for Rs 175.18 crore. However, they were valued at Rs 51.19 crore based on rates fixed for agricultural land rather than residential rates in violation of rules.

The department didn’t formulate any password policy. In absence of this, 3,981 transactions were unauthorisedly accessed by using the user IDs allotted to the departmental official or personnel on the days of their absence due to leave, said the CAG.

The test check of records for Sales Tax/VAT revealed irregularities involving Rs 1,730 crore in 1,442 cases.

Seventeen dealers in 19 cases in the office of eight Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioners (DETC)- Ambala, Faridabad (East), Faridabad (South), Gurugram (North), Gurugram (South), Karnal, Mewat and Panipat – didn’t show the sales of Rs 1,151 crore in their returns for the year 2013-14 to 2015-16, even though they had claimed input tax credit (ITC).

“This resulted in evasion of tax of Rs 60.06 crore. Also, the penalty of Rs 180.17 crore was leviable,” said the CAG.

In another case of 10 dealers, the DETC offices in Gurugram (North), Jind, and Rohtak let off a penalty of Rs 14.27 crore. These dealers had understated their purchases of Rs 45.57 crore and evaded tax of Rs 4.76 crore by claiming inadmissible ITC, suppressing stock.

In test check of records of excise collection, the CAG finds short realisation of Rs 45.72 crore of excise duty, licence fee, penalty, interest, and other irregularities in 576 cases.

Irregularities related to taxes on vehicles resulted in a loss of Rs 53.31 crore in the transport department. It included 1,136 cases of overloaded vehicles from which Rs 1.92 crore was to be realised and non-recovery of permit fees in 2,029 cases involving Rs 4.26 crore.