ITANAGAR, Feb 21: The Guwahati zonal unit of the directorate general of GST intelligence (DGGI) seized large amounts of incriminating documents regarding mis-declaration and non-payment of GST during raids conducted at various business premises in Arunachal Pradesh which were engaged in production and clearance of wood-based articles.
Raids were conducted at 28 wood-based units in Pasighat, Mebo and Ruksin in East Siang district, Chowkham (Namsai), Medo (Lohit), and Likabali (Lower Siang), informed Guwahati DGGI Joint Director LS Gangte in a release.
The search operation was conducted in order to bring the tax evaders in the wood-based industries sector to book.
The field CGST and customs commissionerates, the state police, and the CRPF assisted in conducting the raids.
“Many of these wood-based industries are not registered under the GST and are not paying GST collected on sale of their finished goods, while many other registered units were found grossly mis-declaring and under-valuing the sales and turnovers that have been shown in their monthly GSTR-3B returns,” said the joint director.
Gangte said a majority of the products of the wood-based industries are classified in Chapter 44 of the erstwhile Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985, and the notified GST tariff, and that these items are taxed in both central excise and in GST.
“These products of wood, like sawdust, wood waste and scrap, pellets, poles, pilings and posts, veneer, and sheets for plywood were charged at 12.5% central excise duty. In the GST regime, too, all these goods, along with sawn timber, attract GST at the rates of 5-18%,” said Gangte.
The DGGI’s Guwahati zonal unit is mainly concentrating on collection of intelligence regarding evasions, fraud, etc, committed by taxpayers within Northeast India (except Sikkim).
The DGGI is the premier pan-Indian intelligence organization which investigates cases of evasion of central excise, service tax, CGST and IGST, commercial and economic frauds, and such.
