Officials of the State Tax Department (formerly known as Commercial Tax Department) conducted raids across the State and collected penalties of about ₹36.5 lakh from traders for violating Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act.
“Many traders are not issuing invoices to customers and are evading GST. We request the customers to insist on bills, which is their right and can check quality”, said AP Chief Commissioner of State Tax J. Shyamala Rao.
The State Tax Department authorities are conducting awareness on GST Act for the last few months. But, some businessmen are conducting sales without issuing invoices, causing huge loss to the State exchequer, the Chief Commissioner said.
Decoy teams led by Joint and Deputy Commissioners raided jewellery showrooms, furniture, electric, iron and hardware, sanitaryware, footwear and other shops and establishments and noticed that many traders were doing business without issuing bills and evading GST, said Joint Commissioners V. Raghunath and J.V.M. Sharma.
“More than 25 decoy teams inspected the shops, showrooms and other establishments for the last five days and verified the bill books and other documents. The teams found that nearly 50% of the traders are evading GST”, said Deputy Commissioner J. Jagadeshwar Rao.
The decoy team headed by Assistant Commissioner K.P. Sailaja Sri and inspectors D. Srinivas and A. Srinivas Rao, conducted surprise checks in Balaji Silver, Sanghvi Silver Palace and other gold and silver shops in Jai Hind Complex, Vijayawada, and served notices for not issuing bills.
Posing as regular customers, the officials walked into the shops and enquired about prices of gold items, kitchenware, furniture and other goods. The shopkeepers instead of issuing bills collected the amount without putting GST, Mr. Raghunath told The Hindu .
“The traders were issuing estimation orders, but not the invoices. Under Section 122 of GST Act, ₹10,000 penalty or equal to the tax value (whichever is highest) can be imposed on the trader”, Mr. Shyamala Rao said adding that the raids will continue in the State.
Besides, the officials caught a person who was carrying 370 gm of gold jewellery without any bills and two other persons for carrying silver items and cases were registered, Mr. Sharma added.
