GST violation: State Taxes Deptt seizes Rs 32 lakh Cigarettes & Tobacco products

Jammu: The State Taxes department Enforcement Teams Friday seized Rs 32 lakh Cigarettes & Tobacco products from dealers and retailers on the suspicion of having evaded the GST.
As per a handout of the department, the teams conducted day long extensive inspections of all the retailers cum dealers of cigarettes under the instructions of Commissioner, State Taxes, P.K. Bhat and under the supervision of Additional Commissioner, State Taxes (Administration & Enforcement), Mohammed Shahid Saleem.
The five enforcement teams of the department conducted inspections of the dealers across Jammu city and seized the Cigarettes & Tobacco stocks on the suspicion of having evaded the GST. They have been issued the prescribed INS-02 notice as provided under law. Further investigations are being carried out by the inspection teams and every effort is being made by the State Taxes Department to track the trail of illegal import of cigarettes, its dumping and further transmission to retailers.
The dealers were asked to deposit the GST purchase bills with the respective circles for scrutiny and further legal course.
A spokesman of the State Taxes Department appealed the traders fraternity and the shopkeepers who sell the cigarettes to ensure receipt of tax invoices of the stocks purchased & held by them for sale on their business premises. The State Taxes Department shall continue inspection of all the business units indulging in sale of cigarettes with intention to evade tax so as to ensure that the genuine traders who fulfil / comply with all the GST rules are not hit by such malpractices. The department shall conduct such inspections in other districts as well in near future.
Meanwhile, the inspection teams also seized the desktops of M/s Natural Mega Mart and M/s J.K. Enterprises, Paharian Mohalla for scrutiny as the Department had seized non-GST bills issued by the firm at Kishtwar / Bhaderwah & Doda from retailers. The Department has appealed all the wholesalers at Jammu and other areas to sell their products to retailers through GST invoices only and the retailers have also been advised to not receive products without GST invoices.
The inspecting teams included State Taxes Officers Abdul Rehman, Mohd. Raiyaz, Neeraj Sharma, Mohit Raina, Nagesh Singh, & Narinder Singh and the Taxes Inspectors Sandip Saraf, Shrawan Kumar, Amit Jain.