107 vehicles seized during 2-days special campaign to check GST evasion- Harpal Singh Cheema

Chandigarh, August 24, 2023: Punjab Finance, Planning, Excise and Taxation Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema on Thursday said that during the 2-day special inspection campaign conducted by the mobile wings of various districts at Mandi Gobindgarh on August 23-24, 107 vehicles have been impounded due to lack of e-way bills and other required documents. He said that after the evaluation of the goods being carried by these vehicles, the defaulters are likely to be fined more than 2 crore rupees.

Excise and Taxation Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, who was receiving minute-to-minute information about this campaign at his office here, said that during this investigation campaign, the officers with the mobile wings were authorized to access business premises and the necessary records under Section 71 of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act so that apart from vehicles plying on the road, they could also inspect business premises as well as scrutinize the required records.

Giving details about this special checking campaign, Harpal Singh Cheema said that 55 vehicles were seized during the checking conducted by the mobile wings of Patiala, Ludhiana and the State Intelligence and Preventive Unit (SIPU) on August 23, while 52 vehicles were seized by the mobile wings of Ropar, Patiala and Shambhu till the afternoon of August 24 He said that after issuing the notice in these cases, the responses of the concerned firms and the goods being transported will be evaluated by the Tax Intelligence Unit to fix penalty against defaulters.

Highlighting the efforts being made to prevent tax evasion in the state, Cheema said that the mobile teams of the tax department are on duty for 24 hours a day. He said that on receiving information about large-scale tax evasion at any place, mobile wings of various districts are used to run a surprise operation to round up the tax evaders. He said that apart from this, latest technologies and software are being used by the Tax Intelligence Unit (TIU) and Data Mining Wing to check GST evasion.

Giving clarion call to the people of the state to be part of this campaign of making Punjab economically strong, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that every citizen of the state must ask for bill for the goods and services being availed by him. He said that the ‘Mera Bill’ mobile app has also been launched by the Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann led Punjab Government to encourage people to get bills for their purchases. He said that anyone can win a prize of up to Rs 10000 by uploading the GST bill for the goods and services availed by him anywhere in the state.