Punjab taxmen slap Rs 10.44 cr fine in April alone

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 30

The enforcement wing of the Punjab GST Department has imposed a penalty of Rs 10.44 crore in the month of April.

A spokesperson for the Taxation Department said: “This is an all-time high penalty imposed in a single month, touching the double-digit mark in crore for the first time. Despite the fact that the number of Covid-19 cases witnessed a surge in April and from last year the number of mobile wings was reduced to seven from 13, the enforcement wing of the GST department got success in setting up a new benchmark.”

Meanwhile, among the seven mobile wings of the department, the highest penalty of Rs 3.35 crore has been imposed by mobile wing, Ludhiana. The maximum amount of penalty imposed by individual officers is Rs 1.22 crore in 36 detention cases by Sumit Thapar from Ludhiana. Baldeep Karan Singh, of Ludhiana and Rajeev Sharma of Chandigarh imposed a penalty of Rs 1.06 crore and Rs 1.01 crore, respectively.

The commodity-wise analysis of the total penalty imposed in April reveals that Rs 4.59 crore penalty is imposed on vehicles carrying iron scrap, Rs 2.60 crore on vehicles carrying iron and steel finished goods, Rs 1.04 crore on those carrying parchoon /mixed goods, Rs 1.03 crore on other miscellaneous goods, Rs 80.67 lakh on vehicles carrying copper scrap, Rs 17.47 lakh on those carrying mustard seed/ oil. Likewise, iron scrap accounted for 43.96 per cent of the total penalty imposed in April, while “parchoon” goods accounted for 9.9 per cent of the total penalty imposed.