Haryana Congress has demanded a thorough probe into the alleged scam involving evasion of stamp duty running into crores of rupees by private mining companies by getting their lease deeds registered only on `10 stamp paper, causing a huge revenue loss to the State exchequer.
The private mining companies have reportedly caused a huge revenue loss to the State exchequer by not paying the stamp duty for registering their lease deeds to carry out mining activities in the Mahendragarh district.
Kiran Choudhry, leader of the Haryana Congress legislature Party on Thursday demanded, “The lease deeds of companies involved in evasion should be immediately cancelled, complicit officers identified and acted against and steps taken to recover the tax payer’s money and make good the loss to the exchequer.”
The former excise and Taxation Minister said that registration of most of such lease deeds was executed on affidavits on stamp paper of `10 which caused revenue loss of `7.56 crore to the State exchequer in Mahendragarh district alone. Considering the fact that such deeds were also executed in Bhiwani, Sonepat, Panchkula, Yamunanagar and other districts, the loss may well run into hundreds of crores of rupees, said she.
“Now that an official communiqué exposing the racket has been sent to the Government, probe should be ordered to identify the leasing companies and officers involved in stamp duty evasion. The Government should cancel the mining licences of such companies, fix the officers hand in glove with them, take prompt and deterrent action against them, and move fast to make good the loss to the exchequer”, Choudhry demanded.
It is learnt that as many as seven lease deeds were registered without paying the stamp duty in Mahendragarh between November 2014 and January 2016. The firms merely used stamp paper of `10 for the deeds while as per rules, they were to pay a total stamp duty of `7.56 crore, she added.