JAMMU: Commissioner of State Taxes, Dr Rashmi Singh, today called upon the officers of Jammu division to take timely and robust action against cases of tax evasion and ensure compliance with tax law across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir through optimization of data analytics and field intervention.
The Commissioner made these remarks while chairing the departmental review meeting of the State Tax Officers of Jammu Division here today.
Addressing the officers during the meeting, the Commissioner commended the department for the successful completion of audit cases overcoming several challenges. She asked the officers to undertake multi-faceted revenue recovery efforts at the earliest, assuring officers of any inter-departmental support required for the same. Dr Rashmi Singh directed the enforcement wings to intensify their field actions and take appropriate measures to curb undervaluation with a special focus on outer and remote areas.
Underlining the massive infrastructural expansion undertaken by the government across Jammu and Kashmir with several under-construction national projects, the Commissioner directed officers to pay special attention to work contracts and the construction sector within specific areas of the project to ensure compliance and augmentation of UT revenue.
The Commissioner advocated for joint efforts with other departments to make sure that payments of non-compliant dealers are not released by DDOs of various departments. She also stressed upon the need for wider publicity of the recent government circulars regarding the release of payments by the DDOs. She further directed the field officers to undertake field inspections and ensure compliance by hotels, banquets, and restaurants and adopt innovative approaches to identify tax evasions.
“The department is undertaking multiple IT interventions in this direction, one such initiative is the installation of RFID readers at uncovered locations to keep check on tax evaders,” she said.
Dr. Rashmi Singh further said that tax officers should facilitate the honest taxpayers and chase the evaders and expressed her confidence that officers will adopt all necessary measures by taking assistance of business intelligence inputs to ensure that the department achieves the required revenue target to the fullest.
During the meeting, Additional Commissioner of State Taxes (Administration & Enforcement), Namrita Dogra, apprised the Commissioner of various departmental activities and presented circle wise report on the successful completion of scrutiny and audit of taxpayers for the financial year 2017-18. She stated that the State Taxes Department has completed an audit and scrutiny for the FY 2017-18 and has in the process been able to identify a substantial amount of unrealized revenue.
The Additional Commissioner reiterated that there is a positive growth in GST collections during the year in the UT of J&K stating that more than 30% growth has been seen over the comparative period last year and the overall growth in the SGST cash component has shown a healthy upward swing of around 28.26%.