To gather feedback from the traders about ways and means to rationalise and simplify tax collection, Punjab Excise and Taxation Commissioner has been asked to tour various mandis in the State.
The directions have been issued by Deputy Chief Minister-cum-Excise and Taxation Minister Sukhbir Badal on Tuesday while presiding over a meeting of senior officials of the Excise and Taxation and Finance department.Sukhbir has asked the Excise Commissioner to take feedback on the apprehensions of traders before framing a policy which would simplify tax collection. “The new policy framework should be ready by July 1,” he said.
Spelling out the mandate to the tax officials, Sukhbir said that he was in favour of reducing taxes. “We must rationalize the tax structure so that traders do not shy away from paying tax…The collection system should also be such that tax payment should be hassle-free and involve minimum paper work,” he added.During the meeting, it was suggested that up to a certain limit, traders should be asked to pay only a certain renewal fee which would end the need to keep any books.
“Different categories of tax payers could be created to regulate tax collection and traders could even be issued stickers on behalf of the department which they could affix on their premises,” he suggested.Discussing the issue of rationalizing license fee of marriage palaces, Sukhbir asked the Excise department to make a list of both licensed as well as illegal marriage palaces running in the State.
“Besides conducting mapping exercise by July 1, the Excise Department should also create data of top 50 marriage palaces in the State,” he added. He said that he visualised a system whereby all marriage palaces could be grouped separately according to their turnover following which a lump sum could be charged as license fee. “We can also issue a unique identity number to each marriage palace to make it easy for them to interact with the department,” he added.