17 firms given notices as part of GST evasion probe

(article which remained unpublished)

DC Correspondent 

Hyderabad, Oct. 16: The high-powered committee constituted to investigate the alleged Rs 1,400 crore GST evasion by 75 firms headed by the former commissioner of commercial tax department T. K. Sreedevi has picked 17 of them for further probe. Of them is one Edukondalu Labour Contractor Cooperative Society with an insignificant turnover and that too closed on 20 March, 2023 was also chosen.

They are part of the 75 entities whose GST transactions were alleged to have been masked by the official’s facing allegations. 

The society registered on 1 July, 2017 ceased to exist as its registration was cancelled on 20 March, 2023. It was accused of short payment/non-payment of output tax and ordered to pay Rs 7,56,800 in SGST and CGST. Prima facie with the documents on hand sources aver there is no failure in discharging duties by the officials.

Documents available with the Deccan Chronicle clearly state that the allegation about not serving notices to this society by officials facing allegations are false. The society which had its office in Saroornagar of Ranga Reddy district mostly executed works for the government by way of cement roads, laying pipelines and foot paths.   

The data once submitted by a dealer on the GSTIN website cannot be tinkered by him or the officials.  The data therefore cannot be masked by anyone as alleged in the case.

The documents reveal that notices were indeed issued to the society on 1 March, 2021. The society registered on 1 July, 2017 ceased to exist as it cancelled its registration on 20 March, 2023. In the interim period the firm showed nil returns as per its records in 2017-18, while in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 periods it showed its GSTR-3B to be lower than its GSTR-2A leaving a due payable to the assessee, the society itself. Registered in the Saroor Nagar jurisdiction the notice was issued by Ravikumar Chinta the assistant commissioner.  

It may be noted that GSTR-3B represents monthly returns which include purchases, sales and tax payable by the dealer. While GSTR-2A is a statement of purchases made by the taxpayer. The officers rely on the records filed by the firms and are not mandated to physically check every entity. The duty if any on this score would be on the jurisdictional officer and not the officers facing allegations in this case. Notices are issued if output tax in GSTR-3B is less than output tax recorded in GSTR-1.

In this case in 2018-19 while the GSTR-3B of the society was Rs 50,229.96 its GSTR-2A (this represents the society’s statement of purchases made by it) was Rs 52,443.96. This situation warrants the department in turn to pay the society Rs 2,214 for the financial year in question. In the financial year 2019-20 the GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B were almost the same at Rs 1,44,308. Notices are issued if GSTR-3B is less than GSTR-1. The society’s GSTR-3B was Rs 59,798.74 and GSTR-2A was Rs 61,775.58 leaving a due of Rs 1,976 payable by the department itself. The society did not show any turnovers in returns between the financial years 2020-21 and 2022-23 as per the records.

The notice issued to the society cites turnover declared in GSTR-3B is less than that obtained from TDS deductor (this refers to tax deduction by government departments to whom the said entity executed some works. It further cited differences in input tax and output tax credits. On examination of records it cites discrepancies resulting in short payment/non-payment of output tax and ordered the society to pay Rs 7,56, 800 in SGST and CGST put together. This amount cited is regarding a discrepancy noticed in GSTR-7 for which notice was issued. GSTR-7 is filed by the respective government department where the work was executed. Prima facie with the documents on hand sources aver there is no failure in discharging duties by the officials.

The senior official who did not wish to be quoted said, “As subject experts our duty is to assist IIT Hyderabad in providing services as per our requirements. Returns are filed in GSTIN. The software is not able to generate a comprehensive show cause notice by identifying all the discrepancies between the returns, statements filed by the taxpayer and e-way bills generated. Development of this software was a work in progress which was shelved by the former commissioner Sreedevi. To this day states like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjab, Delhi and Assam are relying solely on IIT Hyderabad.”

The officials who wished to remain anonymous say the entire case could turn out to be a case of making a mountain out of a molehill going by how it has turned out to be so far. (G Ram Mohan)

 

 

 

Harish and BRS watered down 2013 Act: say farmers bodies

(My work which remained unpublished)

DC Correspondent

Hyderabad, Sept. 29: The BRS leader T. Harish Rao’s assertion that the State government should implement the Land Acquisition Act 2013 passed by their own UPA government while holding HYDRAA operations has raised hackles of all given its track record on the issue. They recall that by issuing GO MS No. 123, which was struck down by the High Court, the BRS had worked against the letter and spirit of the 2013 law.  

Activists aver the centre took a cue from the Telangana government which passed the GO and AP which used the land pooling process for land acquisition of its capital and then allowed the states to bypass the 2013 Act. Thus came the BRS governments ‘The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Telangana Amendment) Act, 2017’.

The BRS leader made the comments recently while addressing the residents of Maruthi Nagar in Hyderabad who feared demolition of their residences by HYDRAA, created for removing encroachment. However, activists recall that this is sheer hypocrisy as the 2013 act was not implemented in any of the projects undertaken by the BRS.    

Explaining the importance of the 2013 Act Sarampally Malla Reddy, AIKS state vice president said, “It mandated payment of thrice the rates of lands to the owners and barred taking over of two cropped land. Consent of 80 percent of land owners for private projects and 70 percent of them for PPP projects was mandatory along with a situation impact assessment (SIA). The 2013 act which was passed owing to pressure from farmer’s organizations was sought to be bypassed by the BJP but its bid to pass a law diluting it failed in the Rajya Sabha. The BJP wanted to facilitate acquisition of one kilometer of land on both sides of the highways which practically meant 1/3^rd of the country’s land would be up for grabs. It is then that the states were asked to enact their own laws.”

In this milieu, the BRS government brought in GO MS No. 123 on 30 July, 2015 and began its efforts to circumvent the 2013 Act. Many states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also followed suit.

Dr Usha Seethalakshmi, an independent researcher on land issues said, “The GO doesn’t talk of relief and rehabilitation and talks about voluntary land procurement through a consultation process. It basically meant setting aside the 2013 act which for the first time recognized the need for compensating not just the land owners but tenant farmers and farm labourers by holding the social impact assessment (SIA). The Congress government should repeal the 2017 act and bring in the 2013 Act as promised in their manifesto. The HYDRAA operations are being taken up under the 2017 act.”    

The GO issued on 30 July, 2015 fixed the rate of land to be acquired at Rs 5,85,000 per acre. It barred the land owners from approaching the court for higher compensation once agreed upon. The government had by then acquired nearly 40,000 acres as per its counter affidavit in the court. When some aggrieved landless labourers approached the High Court a single judge bench struck down the GO which was then upheld by a two-member bench for violating the 2013 Act. The 2017 act was enacted after that.

The single judge of the High Court in his order had said, the GO is unconstitutional and the government cannot act as a private property broker. Activists remind that the BRS government amended the land rates when they wanted to sell them and not before acquiring lands as per Sec. 36 of the 2013 Act. 

The British era Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and the 2017 Act are the same in spirit and Harish Rao who presided over the latter should ask for its repeal if he is sincere by holding an assembly session, said Donthi Narasimha Reddy, a policy analyst.      

“The government has a valid argument that for houses within the FTL of tanks or within the Musi riverbed, the Land Acquisition Act doesn't apply. But in the context of the proposed Musi River Development project, the government should conduct Social Impact Assessment, seek consent of the affected people and involve them in the planning process, because the 2013 Act goes much beyond just the compensation requirements," said Kiran Vissa, Rythu Swarajya Vedika.  

The BRS Government’s failure to implement the 2013 Act in letter and spirit, led to a large bunch of litigations in the HC by various sections of people including the landless farmers, single women etc affected by land acquisition.  (G Ram Mohan)

 

 

 No chance of GST violations in TGBCL

(My article which remained unpublished)

DC Correspondent

 Hyderabad, Sept. 26: The interesting and intriguing part of the Rs 1,400 crore alleged GST evasion scam that was unearthed by the commercial tax department is of this Rs 400 crores has been evaded by the public sector entity that is the Telangana Beverages Corporation Limited (TGBCL). The inclusion of publicly owned entities has raised eyebrows.

As public entities cannot pay bribes officially, how and why these entities were allowed to evade paying GST is a point for investigation. How these allegations would unfold and who must have pocketed the amount if any is the moot question. The other public entities that have been found to be charged in the same FIR for evading GST are GHMC, TRANSCO, LIC, L&T metro rail, TGTS (Telangana Technological services) and Telangana Fibre Net Corporation.       

However sources in the TGBCL aver the modus operandi of its operations does not leave any scope for any manipulation by the corporation. Payments are all made to the treasury account in the SBI.  The end customer for the corporation is the retailer who pays money in the form of challan to the treasury in the finance department and collects an indent. The challan is matched by the software and then stock is given.

Payment to the supplier for the corporation that is breweries or distilleries are also paid by the finance department treasury. The payment is made by the corporation every week apportioning the income under VAT and excise duty heads. All through the money remains under different heads of the finance department and not in the corporation accounts.

There is no liquid cash involved anywhere. The salaries, pensions and office expenses of the corporation employees are paid through a grant-in aid by the finance department, an official informed.

The corporation does not have either assets or liabilities as they have been taken over by the government. Another fall out of this entire episode has been the reported proposal by the excise department to show the VAT income generated by them on sale of liquor under their own head in the finance department as it is generated by the work of their staff all through.  

The corporation has so far not received any notice from the government in the Rs 400 crores alleged GST evasion issue. Three probes are now underway namely by the CID, ED and a high-powered committee headed by the former commissioner of the commercial tax department.

 Another outcome of this has been the central GST officials addressing a letter to the state GST officials demanding details on evasion of Rs 1,400 crores GST scam seeking their share of Rs 700 crores. They have also sought names of the businesses facing allegations. (G Ram Mohan)

 

Farm Associations Bat For Debt Relief Commission In Telangana

 

 MY ARTICLE WHICH REMAINED UNPUBLISHED............................

 DC Correspondent

Hyderabad, July 20: With climatic conditions playing truant the fortunes of farmers has never been more precarious. In the backdrop of loan waiver by the State government farmers associations say this does not guarantee that the same farmers will not slip into debt again. The waiver itself they say is being implemented with preconditions and riders and leaves out many farmers.

Farmers fall into debt owing to problems that stalk them from spurious seeds to shortage of institutional credit, natural calamities, lack of MSP (minimum support price) and even export and import policies which play havoc with their fortunes. In this milieu they say there is a dire need to reconstitute the state commission for debt relief for small and marginal farmers. The crop insurance scheme is still at the planning stage in the State, said Sarampally Malla Reddy, AIKS state vice president, hence the need for a functioning commission.

The Telangana State Commission For Debt Relief (Small Farmers, Agricultural Labourers And Rural Artisans) Act, 2016. (act no. 12 of 2016) enacted on 27 May, 2016 during the BRS regime endeavours to empower it to pass awards after adjudication. It can recommend appropriate measures for the redressal of the grievances of small farmers, agricultural labourers and rural artisans through conciliation and negotiation and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

The law was passed after a public interest litigation 315 of 2014 was filed in the High Court seeking its formation by Pakala Srihari Rao who went on to become its member. The BRS government constituted a three-member committee in place of the mandated five members.

“We functioned sans any judicial powers to arbitrate between the money lender and the farmers who approach us. Rules and regulations which should guide our work should have been laid out. This despite repeated pleas and reminders to the government. If the rules were framed we could have settled debts by arbitrating between the farmer and lender. The relief could be by way of even giving extended time to pay, reducing interest or even the principal amount. The commission should have been allowed to declare a mandal, one or more districts drought hit and distressed. This would have enjoined the banks to reschedule loans among other reliefs. The rulings given by us would be binding on the government as it is based on hard data from the ground,” Pakala Srihari Rao said.  

The commission is meant to address the concerns of farmers with less than five acres. For SC, ST farmers the limit is 10 acres. We need more powers with rules framed to function properly so it will be prudent for the present government to empower the commission, said Nagarla Venkateshwarlu, former chairman of the commission.  

The Act empowers the commission to suo moto or on application declare an area, district as distress affected, undertake adjudication of disputes between farmer and individual creditors but sans rules these powers remained on paper.

I moved the court by filing a PIL 279 of 2015 seeking the framing of such rules. The government sought time to respond recently in the high court, Srihari Rao said.

The KCR government amended Section 26 of the 1971 Passbook Act to remove the requirement of recording the status of the person who tilled the land. This left 75 per cent of the real cultivators out of the records. This should be brought back to enumerate tenant farmers who constitute fifty percent of those who end their lives. With the mechanism to identify them absent the commission can chip in and recommend in case they occur. It can go to the field and give rulings which are binding on the government, Malla Reddy said. (G Ram Mohan)

 

 

While the BRS claim 209 farmers have ended their lives by suicide, several farmer unions maintain that the opposition party has included the number of farmers who died by electric shock to the list of the farmers who had died by suicide to exaggerate the number and score political points over the incumbent government.

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/politics/farm-unions-call-brs-farmer-suicide-data-a-bluff-888413

While the BRS claim 209 farmers have ended their lives by suicide, several farmer unions maintain that the opposition party has included the number of farmers who died by electric shock to the list of the farmers who had died by suicide to exaggerate the number and score political points over the incumbent government.

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/politics/farm-unions-call-brs-farmer-suicide-data-a-bluff-888413

 

 

Links to some of my articles in the agriculture, civil supplies, education, TSRTC and commercial tax departments.....

 

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/241223/telangana-has-capacity-to-mill-all-its-paddy-and-more.html

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/140124/gas-shortage-worries-residents-officials-assure-normalcy-within-week.html

 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/news/excise-and-commercial-tax-departments-caught-in-turf-war-885440

 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/brs-jacked-up-agri-allocations-failed-to-spend-kisan-sabha-884694

 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/060124/civil-supplies-corp-being-run-by-outsourced-and-contract-staff.html

 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/rs-70-crore-gst-refund-scam-unearthed-885784

 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/telangana-farmers-worried-over-53-rain-deficit-in-state

 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/291223/gurukul-pet-teachers-hope-to-get-their-jobs-soon.html

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/education/241023/contractual-university-teachers-in-limbo-await-regularisation-of-jobs.html 

 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/091023/telangana-election-code-worries-contract-teaching-staff.html 

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/education/241023/contractual-university-teachers-in-limbo-await-regularisation-of-jobs.html

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/010124/farmers-pray-for-revitalised-crop-loss-insurance-scheme.html

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/051223/aspirants-hope-congress-will-start-recruitment.html  

 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/151123/rtc-staff-beset-by-pay-dues-unpaid-arrears-increased-work-and-inhuma.html 

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/education/241023/contractual-university-teachers-in-limbo-await-regularisation-of-jobs.html 

 

 

 

 INTERVIEW WITH SHIVRAJ SINGH CHAUHAN former CM of Madhya Pradesh...........

 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/politics/every-politician-and-elected-leader-is-a-social-worker-shivraj-singh-chouhan-883015

What do you make of the party’s decision to sideline senior leaders like Vasundhara Raje and Raman Singh, and opt for newcomer CMs? Is this not representative of Congress's culture of imposing leaders by the high command in Delhi? When I became the CM, I had no administrative experience as a minister. Similar doubts were aired about me also. If one has the conviction, he or she can deliver. There were deliberations at various levels before deciding on who will do what in the BJP. Congress has no culture and there is no question of their ways in our party. I had said that I would not seek any post as that culture is alien to us. President Droupadi Murmu did not seek any post. Working in the party is akin to being in the government as both are done to serve the nation. Making demands is against the BJP’s culture.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/politics/every-politician-and-elected-leader-is-a-social-worker-shivraj-singh-chouhan-883015

What do you make of the party’s decision to sideline senior leaders like Vasundhara Raje and Raman Singh, and opt for newcomer CMs? Is this not representative of Congress's culture of imposing leaders by the high command in Delhi? When I became the CM, I had no administrative experience as a minister. Similar doubts were aired about me also. If one has the conviction, he or she can deliver. There were deliberations at various levels before deciding on who will do what in the BJP. Congress has no culture and there is no question of their ways in our party. I had said that I would not seek any post as that culture is alien to us. President Droupadi Murmu did not seek any post. Working in the party is akin to being in the government as both are done to serve the nation. Making demands is against the BJP’s culture.

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/politics/every-politician-and-elected-leader-is-a-social-worker-shivraj-singh-chouhan-883015

What do you make of the party’s decision to sideline senior leaders like Vasundhara Raje and Raman Singh, and opt for newcomer CMs? Is this not representative of Congress's culture of imposing leaders by the high command in Delhi? When I became the CM, I had no administrative experience as a minister. Similar doubts were aired about me also. If one has the conviction, he or she can deliver. There were deliberations at various levels before deciding on who will do what in the BJP. Congress has no culture and there is no question of their ways in our party. I had said that I would not seek any post as that culture is alien to us. President Droupadi Murmu did not seek any post. Working in the party is akin to being in the government as both are done to serve the nation. Making demands is against the BJP’s culture.

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/politics/every-politician-and-elected-leader-is-a-social-worker-shivraj-singh-chouhan-883015

What do you make of the party’s decision to sideline senior leaders like Vasundhara Raje and Raman Singh, and opt for newcomer CMs? Is this not representative of Congress's culture of imposing leaders by the high command in Delhi? When I became the CM, I had no administrative experience as a minister. Similar doubts were aired about me also. If one has the conviction, he or she can deliver. There were deliberations at various levels before deciding on who will do what in the BJP. Congress has no culture and there is no question of their ways in our party. I had said that I would not seek any post as that culture is alien to us. President Droupadi Murmu did not seek any post. Working in the party is akin to being in the government as both are done to serve the nation. Making demands is against the BJP’s culture.

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/politics/every-politician-and-elected-leader-is-a-social-worker-shivraj-singh-chouhan-883015