Post News Network
Baripada, Dec 27: Large-scale financial irregularities are reportedly being committed on a daily basis at the inter-state Jamsola check gate under Saraskana block in Mayurbhanj district. The staff of commercial tax, transport, excise, regulated market committee, forest and civil supplies departments give permission to vehicles for passage after mandatory check-ups and collect tax from them.
The employees of these departments were found illegally collecting tax from vehicles, as was observed by this correspondent for three days – last Sunday, Monday and Wednesday.
According to reports, over 700 trucks from the state and over 1,000 vehicles from neighbouring West Bengal and Jharkhand usually pass through the gate on a daily basis.
As a rule, a driver of a transport vehicle is supposed to pay Rs 5 at the gate as token and Rs 30 towards Red Cross Fund, against which receipts are given to him. Then, the vehicle is weighed for measuring its load. Thereupon, the transport department has to give its permission for passage.
Enquiries revealed that the vehicle divers of six-wheelers and 10-wheelers have to pay Rs 100 for 25 tonne of goods; Rs 200 in case of 31 tonne; and those of 12-wheerlers and 14-wheelers have to pay Rs 300. If the weight is over 35 tonne, the driver has to pay Rs 400.
Similarly, drivers have to pay Rs 200 towards commercial tax.
However, employees of civil supplies, excise and forest departments and RMC take Rs 10 to 30 each but do not give receipts to drivers.
As per a rough estimate in the three days, over 1,400 12-wheelers have passed through the gate from Orissa side, for which Rs 8.68 lakh has been illegally collected from them.
Besides, over 1,800 12-wheelers from West Bengal and Jharkhand have entered Orissa in the three days. Approximately, over Rs 1.11 crore has been illegally collected from the vehicles.
Another irregularity was that over 600 vehicles from Orissa have passed through the gate without token. Officials have fetched Rs 4.80 lakh as bribe to allow passage to such vehicles, the report said.
Similarly, over 1,000 vehicles from West Bengal and Jharkhand have entered the state sans token receipts and Rs 8 lakh has been collected by the officials from these vehicles, it added.
It was learnt that a major chunk of the tax collected sans receipts has been pocketed by staff, depriving the state coffers of that whopping amount on a daily basis.
For this reason, tax collection falls short of its target every year. The government had set a target of Rs 10.39 crore in fiscal 2013-14, but only Rs 6.36 crore was collected. In 2012-13, tax collection from the gate stood at Rs 8.95 crore against the target of Rs 12.76 crore. In -2014-15, the target of Rs 8.04 crore was not achieved. PNN
