Altaf Hamid Rao.
MIRPUR (AJK), (Parliament Times) : AJK Inland Revenue Department, the State-run institution for realisation of taxes in Azad Jammu Kashmir, has launched an extensive drive to net owners of Mirpur AJK-based restaurants and hotels, allegedly involved in evading levies including sales and income taxes through submitting their annual wrong-figured returns evading annual taxes of millions of rupees individually, to the Department, top IRD official sources said.
While talking to our Special Jammu and Kashmir Correspondent Altaf Hamid Rao here on Thursday, a spokesperson of the AJK Inland Revenue Department (South wing) categorically denied the reports carried by a section of the social and print media regarding the forced collection of sales tax from local hotels, restaurants and kebab houses by the departmental officials in the wake of the taxes realising campaign.
Eleborating, the IRD spokesperson co tinued that in Mirpur city and its surroundings, various local restaurants and hotels are operative with substantial earnings on daily basis while the tax payment quantum by such business doers was found so meager. “All such restaurants have not only been duly registered under the Sales Tax Act, 1990 but statutory noticing has also been done asking the restaurant owners to issue proper sales tax invoices by fulfilling all legal requirements”, he underlined.
Such hoteliers and restaurant owners have been advised that sales tax invoice must possess sales tax registration number and due amount of sales tax as per applicable rate must also be deposited into Government treasury in complete abidance of law, the spokesperson said adding that along with this, orders from the senior authorities have also been issued to deploy staff at the business centers of high-income restaurant and hotel owners using the powers obtained under the Sales Tax Law for the purposes of monitoring by the Inland Revenue Department.
“In compliance thereto, Excise staff has been deployed in specific restaurants and as a result of daily monitoring, quantum of sales tax payments has considerably been raised along with expansion of tax net and tax base”, he pointed out.
The spokesman further said that consequent to legal action taken by the Inland Revenue Department against such high-earners business community making minimal payment of taxes, such elements used unethical tactics and gave a false impression to hoodwink the local administration and public sections that they have been harassed by the departmental staff and have been forced to collect sales tax, which has no connection with reality.
“The departmental staff was deployed in the business centers of restaurants and hotels under statutory powers, due to which many tax defaulters have started paying sales tax regularly. Measures taken by the Inland Revenue Department are purely in the interest of the government and such efforts are meant for exposing those elements which are reluctant to pay taxes despite earning millions of business income”, said the spokesperson.
The spokesperson said that the Inland Revenue Department strongly denies all such baseless reports. In fact, as a reaction to legal proceedings, media propaganda has been launched against the Inland Revenue Department and its officers.
The spokesperson categorically declared that the Inland Revenue Department will not be intimidated by any such tactics and will continue to take legal action against all such tax defaulters and will ensure supremacy of law at any cost.