No billing on petrol, diesel sale may cause dearer to exchequer
The petrol pumps in the city hardly issue bills and the customers too are least interested about it. Thus there may be a possibility that various petrol pumps operating in the city are evading hefty tax payments.
The petrol pumps in the city hardly issue bills and the customers too are least interested about it. Thus there may be a possibility that various petrol pumps operating in the city are evading hefty tax payments.
With no check by the excise and income tax (I-T) department, the sale of fuel including diesel and petrol without issuing bills is flourishing unabashedly. It also raises questions on the credibility measures adopted by the establishments to ensure fair and transparent dealing.
One of the officials of income tax department, seeking anonymity, questioned as how the tax on the income earned by a petrol pump owner is evaluated if he or she does not have a document (evidence) to validate the same.
However, he maintained, “The customers buying petrol and diesel can also be held partly responsible for letting the illegal practice flourish. Either there is a lack of awareness among the city residents that they do not demand a bill for their purchase or they deliberately do not want to possess one as it will be of no use for them.”
It is the duty of the income tax department to ensure that tax is levied on the actual income and that no party or individual possess any unaccounted income.
With numerous cases of tax evasion surfacing at the state as well as national level, the concerned departments seem to have learnt no lesson as no concrete action has so far been taken to bring the culprits to justice and put a clamp on several discrepancies in assessment of actual income.
When approached, the concerned top officials expressed their ignorance about any such irregularity.
HS Sohi, director of income tax (investigation wing), said, “The department scrutinise and evaluate the purchase and sale documents of the concerned petroleum company and calculate the tax. The petroleum companies sell petrol at a fixed price so the chances of tax evasion are minimal.”