After providing some respite to traders and industrialists in implementing e-trip (Electronically Transport Information within Punjab), Punjab Government has decided to prolong it further by postponing its implementation for a month.
The State Excise and Taxation Department would not initiate the field checking and the penal action only after September 1. Even as the State Government is maintaining that the decision was taken to give the industrialists some time to upgrade their infrastructure, sources informed that the transporters have now opened the banner of protest against the State Government.
They are now opposing the State Government’s decision to implement the anti-tax evasion measure through transporters for the hosiery goods and nut-bolt industry, under which they have to give online information of the traders’ goods.
Sources informed The Pioneer that the transporters association has met the Excise and Taxation commissioner Anurag Verma on Thursday to discuss the same. The transporters have been maintaining that they already provide information of the goods transported outside Punjab via e-Confirmation Collecting Center.
In a high-level meeting between the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and representatives of trade and industry on Tuesday, the hosiery, nut-bolt and fastner industry agreed for e-Trip through transporters once their goods left the city.
On the other hand, the State Government maintained that the decision to postpone the implementation of the e-Trip was taken considering the demanded of several industrialists to provide them enough time to upgrade their infrastructure to the system.
“The representatives of the trade and industry has requested us to give them sometime. Thus, we have decided to postpone its implementation by a month. We have given them time till August 31 for upgrading their computer infrastructure,” said a senior Government official. During the meeting with Sukhbir too, the trade and industry representatives had maintained that many small traders do not computers and the IT infrastructure to comply with the requirements of Rule 64-A and 64-B.
With the aim of mopping up an additional revenue of Rs 200 crore annually, the state government has decided to implement the e-TRIP system through which details of goods’ movement amounting to Rs 50,000 or more can be entered on the Punjab Excise and Taxation Department’s website generating an acknowledgement slip in return, facilitating smooth intra-State transportation of goods. In case, the acknowledgement slip does not accompany the goods, the owner would become liable for action.
The opposition came after the State Government decided to cover six more items, cotton, sarson (mustard), plywood, iron and steel (excluding scrap), yarn and vegetable oil (edible and non-edible), under the system.