Major sales tax racket busted in Punjab, top officers held

Patiala, Sep 5 (UNI) A major racket involving evasion of sales tax to the tune of several crores of rupees with the connivance of senior Sales Tax officials was busted by the Vigilance Bureau (VB) in Punjab.

The two prime accused in this fraud, Sanjiv Kumar alias Bobby and Nalini Chopra alias Bittu, both from Samana in the district have been arrested by the VB. They were arrested under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act registered at the VB police station in Patiala.

Giving details to mediapersons here today, VB SSP Shiv Kumar said investigations had so far revealed the involvement of two District Taxation Commissioners (DTCs), five Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioners (AETCs), 20 Excise and Taxation Officers (ETOs), five Inspectors and 30 gunmen of these officials. In addition, the involvement of the lower staff stationed at certain tax collection barriers had also been established.

Mr Shiv Kumar said during interrogation, Bobby the kingpin revealed that he paid monthly sums to officials of the Excise and Taxation department as bribe for evasion of sales tax. His trucks carrying raw materials to certain firms in the state were on most occasions allowed to pass through the tax barriers unchecked, that is, without paying the tax on the raw materials.

The interesting aspect of the case was that the firms being supplied with the raw materials were being run by Bobby and Bittu, but in reality the firms are not registered in their name but in the names of unknown persons. The VB has so far come across 30 trucks and five cars which are registered in the name of Bobby.

Those officials whose names figure in the list of beneficaries of Bobby, include Inderjit Singh DTC, Patiala and Bishnoi, DTC, Kaithal in Haryana, AETC's N S Soni, Sadarao, Jaswinder Singh, Jaskaran Singh and Lajpal Jakhar. Each DTC received an amount of Rs one lakh per month as bribe, while the AETCs each got Rs 60,000 per month.

The ETO's were each given from Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000 while each of the Inspectors got Rs 10,000 a month from the alleged accused.

The gunmen of the officials were paid a lumpsum amount of Rs 60,000 a month which they shared while the lower staff at the barriers were paid Rs 500 for each truck they cleared without hecking.

Mr Shiv Kumar said the names of the officials involved in the racket had been forwarded to the Excise and Taxation department and action would be taken accordingly. The state government too has been apprised of the matter.

UNI