Punjab chamber accuses excise dept of withholding VAT refunds

A Punjab business chamber has accused the state excise and taxation department of erroneously withholding Rs 300 crore worth of tax refunds due to several Ludhiana-based manufacturers, on the pretext that these firms were involved in a VAT evasion scam.

"The excise and taxation department has held up the VAT refunds amounting to Rs 300 crore of a large number of bicycle parts, bicycle-makers and light engineering goods manufacturers, even as they have not violated any provision of VAT laws," Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings
General Secretary Avtar Singh claimed.

Singh alleged that the excise and taxation department has drawn up a list of industrialists whose VAT refunds are to be denied, ostensibly because they are involved in a scam to evade the levy.

"We have learnt that the department has made a list of various industrialists for carrying out its investigation in VAT scam and not releasing their VAT refund," he said.

However, Singh asserted that the department should take action against those industrialists who are actually involved in tax evasion, rather than stopping the disbursement of VAT refunds of genuine industrialists.

The industry chamber has sought the intervention of Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and urged him to get the VAT refunds released at the earliest.

However, the excise and taxation department denied that it has withheld VAT refunds of the industry. "We have not held up any VAT refund of the industry. The refunds are being released to them (industry)," Ludhiana Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner Rishipal told PTI.

The department also rejected the industry body's allegation that it has made any list of industrialists against whom the department was carrying out investigation. "We have not made any such list... but our investigation is on against unscrupulous industrialists and traders who indulge in VAT evasion," he said.

The Punjab Excise and Taxation department had detected a major scam last year in which it found various Ludhiana, Khanna and Mandi Gobindgarh-based traders and manufacturers involved in evading VAT worth Rs 100 crore by issuing bogus bills worth Rs 2,000 crore.

According to Rishipal, the department has already got FIRs registered against 11 unscrupulous traders and manufacturers.