New Delhi:

The Delhi High court pulled up the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government over a delay in placing before the Assembly Speaker a report by the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) on the ongoing liquor scam, which resulted in the arrests of former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and senior leader Manish Sisodia. 

“The way you’ve been dragging your feet is something unfortunate. You should’ve been prompt in sending it (reports) to the Speaker and having a discussion at the floor of the assembly,” the court told the Delhi government.

Justice Sachin Datta added, “The delay in sending the reports to the Lieutenant Governor and your handling of the matter raises doubts about your bona fides.”

The court also posted the plea by BJP MLAs, including Vijender Gupta, seeking a special session of the Delhi Assembly for later today, but also said, “We are at a stage that the elections are around the corner. How can there be a special session now?”

The report on the Delhi government’s excise policy revealed a revenue loss of Rs 2,026 crore to the state exchequer. The report’s findings stated that there were deviations from the objective of the policy, a lack of transparency in pricing, and violations in issuing licenses that were not penalised.

Of the losses worth Rs 2,026 crore to the state exchequer, the loss of Rs 890 crore resulted from the government’s failure to re-tender the surrendered licenses before the policy period concluded, according to the report. Moreover, exemptions granted to the zonal licenses led to the loss of Rs 941 crore.

“The department was issuing licenses without checking various requirements relating to excise rules and terms and conditions for the issue of different types of licenses. It was observed that licenses were issued without ensuring solvency, submission of audited financial statements, submission of data regarding sales and wholesale price declared in other states and across the year, verification of criminal antecedents from the competent authority, etc.,” the executive summary of the CAG report read.

AAP MP Sanjay Singh on Sunday, however, questioned the origins of the CAG report in question, which revealed a significant revenue loss of Rs 2,026 crore due to irregularities in the Delhi government’s excise policy. He asserted that the Model Code of Conduct is in place and the BJP is “violating” the regulations by spreading fake news.

Earlier, the Delhi Assembly Secretariat had informed the court that tabling the CAG reports on city administration in the Assembly would serve no useful purpose, given that its tenure ends in February. The submission was made in response to a petition by seven BJP MLAs regarding the issue of tabling the CAG reports in the Assembly.

This came after the Delhi High Court sought responses from the Delhi Government, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, and other respondents regarding a petition filed by BJP MLAs seeking a special Assembly session to present 14 CAG reports. The Delhi government had informed the court that all 14 reports had been sent to the Speaker.

With the Delhi Assembly polls set to be held on February 5, the exchanges  between AAP and BJP have become heated up, with the latter attacking the former over Mr Kejriwal’s ‘Sheesh Mahal’ residence. The BJP referred to CAG findings suggesting that the renovation cost of the CM house was raised from Rs 8 crore to Rs 32 crore due to corruption.

Last year, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva’s dip in the Yamuna to highlight an alleged Rs 8,500 crore scam in the river cleaning project took a wrong turn when he developed skin allergies.

CAG has asked the Finance Ministry to identify high risk taxpayers in the GST composition scheme on a periodical basis and verify from other sources, including third parties, their declared value of sales to check tax evasion.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has asked the Finance Ministry to identify high risk taxpayers in the GST composition scheme on a periodical basis and verify from other sources, including third parties, their declared value of sales to check tax evasion.

Based on an analysis of 8.66 lakh composition taxpayers under the central jurisdiction between 2019-20 to 2021-22 fiscals, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found that a significant number of GST taxpayers have a high risk of crossing the turnover threshold for composition levy scheme (CLS).

These high risk taxpayers were identified by audit from the data contained in GST returns viz. GSTR-4A, GSTR-7 along with third party data sources such as IT returns, ‘Vahan’ database etc.

The GST composition scheme is available to taxpayers whose aggregate turnover, in the preceding financial year, has not exceeded ₹1.5 crore. For taxpayers in special category states, this limit is ₹75 lakh.

The CAG said two major risk areas in respect of CLS taxpayers are under-declaration of the ‘value of outward supply’ by the taxpayers to continue in the scheme; and non-fulfillment of eligibility conditions for availing CLS.

The audit also observed that there were certain CLS taxpayers who were continuing in the Scheme despite not fulfilling the eligibility criteria prescribed in the Act and the Rules, and a substantial number of CLS taxpayers were not discharging their obligatory responsibilities of filing returns and payment of tax under reverse charge.

“The Ministry should identify high risk taxpayers in the CLS on a periodical basis using a risk-based approach and verify their declared value of outward supply from other sources including third parties to minimize the possibility of misuse by ineligible persons,” the CAG said in a report tabled in Parliament recently.

The official auditor also suggested that the Finance Ministry may develop a system of identifying ineligible taxpayers and take action to exclude them from the CLS in order to prevent misuse of the intended benefits of the scheme.