Paralakhemundi: Staffers of multiple government departments posted at a check-gate on the Orissa-Andhra border are minting money in lakhs every month, in a scam of massive proportions that robs the exchequer of crores of rupees every year.
The scam is simple and straightforward – thousands of trucks pass through the Girisola interstate check-gate on National Highway-5 in Ganjam district every day, and each truck has to pay various taxes; the truckers are however not given receipts in full.
For each truck that passes through, the staffers pocket amounts ranging from Rs 30 to Rs 120. Our correspondent who camped at the check gate for two days estimated that around Rs 30.2 lakh was collected from truckers without any receipts being issued. This translates into a whopping Rs 55 crores in unaccounted revenue that goes into the wallets of the check-gate nexus (ranging from peons to senior officials).
According to our correspondent, at least 3,000 trucks cross the border on a regular day, and each truck has to obtain clearances from departments such as commercial tax, motor vehicle, excise, forest and civil supplies before being allowed to cross over. However, truckers who are not part of any major association are usually not given receipts – the truckers too do not complain as they can get away by paying a token of the prescribed fee. This has resulted in a scam that flourishes all through the year.
At one of the gates, the truckers are required to pay Rs 30 towards the Red Cross Society Fund. After that, the truckers have to take their vehicles to a weigh bridge run by the motor vehicles department for inspection. If the vehicles are found to be carrying more than the prescribed load, they will have to shell out a penalty. Here too, the officials fudge the receipts resulting in more black money.
Next to join the party are the civil supplies, excise and forest departments, which collect anywhere between Rs10 to Rs30 from each truck, without issuing receipts.
According to observations made over the last two days, Rs9.70 lakh was collected illegally from around 1,500 trucks going from Orissa to Andhra. A further Rs15.8 lakh was collected illegally from 1,600 trucks coming into Orissa from Andhra, while around Rs 4.90 lakh was illegally collected from 500 trucks that failed to obtain a token at the entry gate leading to the border. It is learnt that a trucker is sometimes charged as much as Rs 1,000 if he fails to produce his papers.
The irony is that none of the departments fail to meet their annual revenue targets. Motor Vehicles Inspector (MVI) Sanjay Kumar Sahoo said his department collected Rs 48.67 crore against a target of Rs 54 crore during the 2014-15 fiscal. It had similarly missed out on targets in the 2013-14 fiscal too and this financial year too is not going to be any different, according to sources.
A posting at the check-gate is highly coveted among government employees, so much so that all senior officers are transferred out of there within a year. Truckers say with a wink that this is to allow a level-playing ground for more employees. Sources said this also gives departments an excuse of not being able to hold any particular employee accountable for the consistent failure in meeting revenue targets.
When contacted at his office at the check-gate, assistant commissioner of the commercial taxes department Prabhat Chandra Behera said he cannot comment for lack of information as all the details are with the commissioner’s office at Berhampur. No senior officials of the forest and excise departments were available for comment at the check-gate.
ACFO IZ Khan and excise inspector Surasen Mukhi said, “We don’t have much work at the gate since hardly any vehicle connected with our departments passes through the gate.” PNN