Keeping a tab on tax evasion

The arrival of Onam season has seen a large number of electronic goods brought from other states, by evading taxes.

The Intelligence wing of the Kerala Commercial Tax Department on Thursday conducted a surprise raid on eight electronic goods shops and a godown based on a tip off that several shops have been illegally selling electronic items from other states without paying taxes.

Six shops and a godown in Electronic Street and two shops on MG road were raided by the Sales Tax officials.

“During Onam the electronic goods are in high demand. The shop owners bring many cheap electronic goods from Delhi and other northern states. While submitting the details about the goods they give wrong details for evading sales tax,” P J Joseph, Commissioner of Commercial Tax Department, said.

He said the raids were conducted only after they received authentic information against these shops. “We have checked consignment details and details from the Railways about the weight and quantity of goods transported to the state. There have been substantial variation in the details given by the shop owners and the details received from Railways and Transport Departments. On the basis of this we have conducted the raid,” S Joshy, Assistant Commissioner (Intelligence) Commercial Tax Department said.

He added that they would check the number of goods in the shops and the godowns of the shops.  Similarly, Commercial Taxes Department will  continue more raids in the coming days.

“They bring large quantity of goods and never submit proper details. The raids will continue in the coming days,” Joseph said.