The enforcement wing of Commercial Tax Department on Friday continued their drive in Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Shivamogga against private arecanut traders of whom some have been allegedly raising fake invoices evading tax and selling it to buyers in North India. They have also found these traders using the same invoice to claim input tax from the State government so far said to be resulting in a loss of Rs. 1.24 crore.
Input tax is the tax that the buyer would have paid to the government for purchase of goods from the seller. A trader claims refund when these goods are sold by him for a higher price.
The raids started on Thursday by two teams of 15 officials each in Mangaluru, Puttur, Bantwal of Dakshina Kannada and in Sirsi, Siddapura, Yellapura of Uttara Kannada district and Sagar of Shivamogga district, continued on Friday. The officials are looking into alleged trading of arecanut worth Rs. 62 crore by raising fake invoices that had caused Rs. 1.24 crore loss to the State exchequer in the form of refund of input tax.
While one team was led by Joint Commissioner, Commercial Tax Enforcement (Western Wing) B.A. Naniappa, the other was led by Additional Commissioner, Commercial Tax Enforcement (South Zone) Mahadev H.R. Mr. Naniappa told The Hindu that traders in Sirsi, Siddapura, Yellapura and Sagar have raised invoice in the names of agencies in Mangaluru and the same were being fed into the department’s system for generation of e-sugam (an acknowledgement of bulk transportation of goods). Instead of goods reaching the destination, the traders have sold it to buyers in North India. The agencies in Mangaluru and other parts of Dakshina Kannada have claimed from the government input tax by falsely reporting to the government receipt of arecanut. Mr. Naniappa said that the department would ask the traders to return to the government the input tax they have claimed. If they fail to do so, then criminal cases would be filed.
