The State Transport and Commercial Tax Departments are losing huge amounts of revenues due to irregularities at different unified inter-State check-gates.
The irregularities are particularly noticed in four important check-gates, Girisola of Ganjam district, loharchati of Bargarh, Jamsola of Mayurbhanj and laxmannath gate of Baleswar.
Besides these four check-gates, there are seven small check-gates connecting the neighbouring States at different approach roads. Every day, Odisha imports large amounts of goods, including eatable items, and exports iron ore and other minerals to different ports like Visakhapatnam, Haldia and Kolkata.
At the unified check-gates, Dalals (middlemen) are being engaged for collecting money illegally from truck drivers. They are responsible for tax evasion by letting the trucks pass even though the vehicles have no requisite documents like fitness certificates and are overloaded. Keeping all this in view, the Government had formed a committee headed by a former Finance Minister to check the irregularities and loss of revenue.
The then Finance Secretary had issued an order to the Transport and Commercial Tax Departments to deploy trained security personnel to control the traffic, issue gate-passes, operate the barriers and provide protection to the officers and drivers on duty. But the illegal activities at the check-gates still continue unabated.