Manipur taxmen snore as state weeps

IMPHAL, April 6: The taxation department, government of Manipur is hiding more than it has revealed in matter of collection of sale taxes, according to knowledgeable sources. The department which is mainly entrusted with the duty of collecting sales tax has for unexplained reasons, stopped checking cash books and daily sale proceeds at the shops in the Khwairamband Bazar, the hub of commercial activities in the state, according to the sources. Instead, the resort for the last two years or so has been for the department to merely calculate the tax amount from the statements submitted by the traders. The sources said since almost 90 percent of the goods sold in the Imphal market are brought in through the National Highway-39, screening the quantum of taxable items at its toll gate at Kangpokpi would be a much more foolproof method of tax collection. This was also the practice. By being a little strict in checking the mandatory forms of the department for import of goods into the state, the department's tax net was able to catch most taxable items, but this practice has been more or less discontinued, the sources said. The method of calculating sale tax from the statements submitted by the traders to the department may be convenient in more ways than one, but the tax loopholes ought to be obvious to anybody, the sources said. The sources also expressed doubts if the department is at all maintaining records of authorised stockists of various commodities and their dealers. They also said that the department has never been open about the stock of taxable items transported into the Imphal market from outside. While it is a well known fact that cement, construction steel, medicine and other items flood the market, the number of "F" forms and "C" forms issued against them is very few, leading to the obvious conclusion that most of these commodities had been transported into the state untaxed. In the face of the financial crisis in the state, the sources said this kind of laxity should not be permitted at any cost.