demon effect: tax collection dips -...

16 & 17

* THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017

New Delhi: The final word isout on the impact of demoneti-sation on Delhi’s revenue ge-neration from VAT. While thetotal tax collections till Janua-ry stand at Rs 17,708 crore inthe current fiscal as against Rs16,668 crore for the same pe-riod in 2015-16, the assessmentfor the period between Decem-ber and January this year hasrevealed a dismal scenario.

In December, the revenuecollection for the first time wit-nessed a negative growth of al-most minus 4% over the sameperiod in 2015 while in Janua-ry, there was only a marginalrecovery with a dismal growthrate of 1.72% over January 2015. The averagegrowth rate before demoneti-sation was announced in November was between 8%and 10%.

The VAT department’s ho-pes now rest on the Februarycollections which appear to be picking up.

The revenue target for 2016-17 from VAT has been pitchedat Rs 22,000 crore. The govern-ment has just eight days of Fe-bruary and the month of

March left to make up for thedecline in growth rate. Also,the global decline in the const-ruction sector, iron and steelcontinues to hold sway and

has adversely impacted VATcollections since last year.

After a robust VAT collec-tion of Rs 2,023 core in Novem-ber 2016, which was 15.59% hig-

her than the same period theprevious year and more thanthe monthly average of 8% to10% witnessed in 2016 over2015, December recorded a ne-

gative growth in VAT for thefirst time in the current fiscal.In December, VAT collectionswere Rs 1,687 crore, 4% lessthan Rs 1,757 crore earned lastyear. This was clearly a set-back for the state government.

The increase in Novemberhad been attributed to moretax being paid between Octo-ber 21 and November 21. SinceDiwali was on October 30, pre-Diwali sales had also got re-flected in the November tax cy-cle. Also, since most tradersdeposit VAT in the last days of the monthly cycle, tax waspaid after demonetisationkicked in. The spike is also being attributed to the factthat traders paid tax after demonetisation by showingpre-dated sales.

It was after this that the im-pact of demonetisation star-ted showing as a reduced cashflow meant a massive declinein cash-based transactions onwhich tax is levied. Also the re-duced cash flow impacted themanufacturing and trade sec-tors too as a lot of transactionsthere too were largely cash-ba-sed and declined. Decemberreflected the adverse impact atits peak when a negativegrowth was recorded.

Negative In Dec, Marginal Recovery In Jan, But Feb May Bring Good News

DeMon effect: Tax collection dipsAmbika.Pandit

@timesgroup.com

1.8 lakh of 3.53 lakh dealers registered with VAT department

have registered on GST platform between December 16 and 31, 2016

HOW NOTEBANDI AFFECTED VATTRANSITION TO GST

➤ Deadline for registration was December 31, 2016 which has now been extended to March 15

➤ Nearly 50,000 dealers could not register as PAN details did not match VAT registration details. They’ve been asked to correct the details and reapply

➤ VAT department will start pruning the list to remove bogus dealers and those whose registrations have been cancelled

➤ Those dealers who fail to register even by March 15 will no longer be eligible for any of the benefits

➤ Total tax collectionsstand at 17,708 crore in the current fiscal as against 16,668 for the same period in 2015-16. Average growth rate between April and October 2016 is between 8% and 10%

➤ After demonetisation on November 8, VAT collections go up by 15.59% over the corresponding period in 2015. Collection in November is 2,024 crore as against 1,751

cr in 2015

➤ But surge in VAT collections attributed to October Diwali sales and VAT deposited by post demonetisation showing pre-dated sales

➤ In December, revenue collection sees negative growth of 3.99% for the first time with 1,687 cr. In December 2015, the figure was 1,757 crore

➤ There was some recovery in January 2017 with collection of 2,057 cr. This was 1.72% more than the corresponding period in 2015 when it was 2,022 cr

➤ February collection to reflect if demonetisation impact is over or not

➤ The revenue target for 2016-17 from VAT is 22,000 cr

➤ Global decline in construction sector, iron and steel continues to hold sway and has adversely impacted VAT collections

New Delhi: About1.85 lakh de-alers out of the 3.53 lakh regis-tered with the VAT depart-ment have enrolled on the GSTportal from December 16 till da-te. The Delhi government isnow preparing to bring out anadvertisement to announce ex-tension of the deadline for en-rolment till March 15. The ear-lier deadline was December 31.

The state government isclear that those who do not re-gister by the extended deadlinewill not be considered for anyof the tax payment related be-nefits given to dealers by theVAT department from thereon.

During enrollment, theVAT department found that in

around 50,000 cases dealers co-uld not complete their applica-tions as their PAN card detailsdid not match the ones registe-red with them. “For instance,the PAN may have the compa-ny name written in abbrevia-tion and the VAT data has thefull name. This difference ap-pears as a mismatch and thedealers have been asked to getthis rectified,” said VAT com-missioner H Rajesh Prasad.

The dealers who choose notto get enrolled on the GST por-tal will come under the scan-ner of the VAT departmentwhich plans to begin the exer-cise of pruning the list of regis-tered dealers for weeding outany possibility of bogus dea-lers or those whose registra-tion may have been cancelled.

Before this process startedon December 16, a workshop tohelp dealers in migrating toGST was held at the Delhi Se-cretariat. Deputy CM ManishSisodia and senior VAT depart-ment officials were present.

The GST portal seeks to em-power the dealers with a comp-lete online experience with nomanual interface. From uploa-ding of bills and filing of re-turns to tax payment, the enti-re process will be online. OnceGST comes into effect, VATwill cease to exist except in thecase of liquor and five petrole-um products, including dieseland petrol. Luxury tax and en-tertainment tax will be mergedunder GST. The excise on liqu-or will continue, along withVAT, even after GST rollout.

Govt extends deadline forregistering on GST portal

Ambika.Pandit@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: The social welfa-re department was on Mondaydirected by deputy chief mini-ster Manish Sisodia to recons-tituted the governing councilof Asha Kiran Complex formentally challenged men, wo-men and children to revampthe overcrowded home.

The council, to be led by no-ted psychiatrist and psychot-herapist Dr Achal Bhagat,will have 13 members.

“The reconstitution of thegoverning council was alsodiscussed earlier. There is anurgent need for revamp to en-sure holistic and integratedimprovement of the institu-tions in the Asha Kiran comp-lex. We need to have experts inthe field for making a mea-ningful change,” said the di-rective to the department.

The members of the coun-cil include special secretaryhealth and family welfare,special director social welfa-re, member secretary of StateMental Health Authority andIHBAS, head of departmentof neurology at GB Pant ho-spital, representative of DelhiCommission for Protection ofChild Rights, representativeof National Trust of India, de-puty commissioner (revenue)northwest district, chief engi-neer of PWD Zone M-3 andDCP (outer district).

On Friday, TOI had repor-ted that Delhi governmentwas exploring the possibilityof bringing in experts andmental health specialists onboard to run the Home, whichis currently run by officersand staff of the social welfaredepartment.

Sisodia took cognizance ofthe TOI report which mentio-ned that a governing councilof Asha Kiran was setup in2011with an external expert aschairperson after orders ofthe high court. However, thesocial welfare secretary wasmade the chairperson of thecommittee.

Sisodia has sought why thesocial welfare secretary wasmade the chairperson and al-so asked for the details of thegoverning council meetingsheld so far.

Sisodia seeksformation of

new AshaKiran council

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Almost sixmonths after a major humantrafficking racket was bustedat GB Road, the Crime Branchhas submitted a 4,000-pagechargesheet against the king-pin couple, Saira Begum (45)and Aafaq Hussain (50), alongwith nine others.

This is first time whenMaharashtra Control of Or-ganised Crime Act (MCOCA)has been invoked against hu-man traffickers. The couplehad an unchecked run since1999 raking in around Rs 300crore till the Crime Brancharrested them in August last year.

The chargesheet details18 properties of the accusedpersons worth Rs 246 crore.“More arrests are likely tofollow as we are trying toidentify others involved inthe crime. We are also tryingto trace more properties ofthe accused couple. Supple-mentary chargesheets willbe filed soon,” said joint com-missioner (crime) RavindraYadav.

The syndicate run by thecouple is suspected to havetrafficked more than 5,000girls from Nepal and remoteareas of West Bengal, Odis-ha, Karnataka, Assam,Andhra and other states,cops said in the chargesheet.

They used to buy girls forRs 50,000 and sell them for upto Rs 2 lakh. The youngergirls commanded a higherprice. Once brought to thekothas of GB Road, the girlswere often confined to almi-rahs and tunnels and forcedto entertain clients in smallcubicles, police said.

The others charged inclu-de Hussain’s driver Rameshand “chief manager” Vasu.The five others arrested areBilli, Samshad, Shilpi, Mum-taz and Puja Thapa, who werethe nayikas (handlers).

“Saira Begum controlled

the racket which was extre-mely organised and managedby the nayikas, paid mana-gers, their assistants and traffickers. The uncheckedinter-state movement of girlsis not possible without an active organised crime syndicate behind it,” thechargesheet said.

Sources said the couplestarted operations from onekotha at GB Road and laterbuilt four others, besidesother benami properties andshops. Begum has been arres-ted in seven cases since 1990and Hussain in three. The wo-man was convicted for sevenyears in a 2001case, but retur-ned to the trade soon after.

In the last 10 years, twochargesheets have been filedagainst the couple. In March2016, the couple was charged intwo FIRs registered under IPCsections of rape, trafficking,abduction and criminal cons-piracy, among others.

Data from NGOs revealsthat every year 60,000 Nepa-lese girls are brought into In-dia for prostitution.

Chargesheetfiled in GB Roadtrafficking case

Rajshekhar.Jha@timesgroup.com

IN NET: Aafaq Hussain and hiswife Saira Begum were arrestedwith nine others in August 2015

IT’S PLASTIC AND NOT FANTASTICAnindya Chattopadhyay

GREEN CONTRADICTION: Countless dumped plastic bottles at Garden of Five Senses in Saidul Ajaib even as Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated two ‘smart dustbins’ at Palika Bazar as part of NDMC’ssmart city project

New Delhi: Two childrenwere allegedly raped by theirneighbours in K N KatjuMarg area in Rohini on Mon-day. Police said that the accu-sed were teenagers. One ofthe accused was apprehen-ded from the area late atnight and was sent for a medi-cal examination.

The girls, aged five and ni-ne, told the police that theyhad gone to an open field torelieve themselves on Mon-day morning when the accu-sed juveniles caught them.

One of them assaulted thenine-year-old child while theother caught hold of her sis-ter. She too was sexually abu-sed by the juvenile later. Fa-mily members said that the

youths threatened the duowith dire consequences ifthey reported the matter totheir parents.

They children were sentfor a medical examinationand a search was launched tonab the accused teens.

One of them was found hi-ding at a relative’s house ne-arby. He was caught and sent to a juvenile justice ho-me for counselling.

A case of gangrape wasregistered based on the state-ments of the two girls. Policesaid that one of the juvenilesclaimed to be a relative of the survivors.

Police said that the child’sfather works as a labourer inthe area while the juvenilesare the sons of a fruit sellerwho stay nearby.

2 girls allege rapeby juveniles

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Delhi Police onMonday launched Sashakti, aninitiative where girls would betrained in easy-to-learn-and-use self-defence techniquesacross the capital. Delhi Policeaims to train over 1 lakh girls and women under the programme.

The event, which was strea-med live for people across the ci-ty, witnessed the participationof over 1,500 girls from morethan 50 schools and colleges,mostly from the west district.The crowd cheered as a heliumaerostat balloon, with the slo-gan ‘Surakshit Dilli’ was relea-sed in the air.

The girls also had officersanswering queries about cybercrime and giving themtips on online safety. Most ques-tions were related to safety of content on Facebook andWhatsApp.

More than 20,000 girls, fromvarious schools and colleges,have already been trained as a

part of the programme in 2016.“We aim to train over 1 lakhgirls and have to make sure that girls don’t feel vulnerablewhen they are travelling alo-ne,” said joint commissioner ofpolice (southwestern range)

Dependra Pathak.“The programme aims at

not just sensitising femalesabout the lurking dangers, butto overcome them with the helpof self-defence training. We ha-ve also been instructing male

students about POCSO and gi-ving them training on how tohelp a woman, if she is in troub-le,” said Vijay Kumar, deputycommissioner of police (west).

The event commenced withdisplay of the defence techni-ques and ended with a streetplay, which depicted how youngsters should play safeand handle situations at timesof emergency.

“The programme was bro-ught forth after consistent ef-forts made by Anita Roy, DCP III(west), who managed all the tra-ining sessions. Having been a student of self-defence her-self, the officer was able to con-nect more with the students,”added Kumar.

The target group, police sa-id, were girls living in clusterswho cannot afford proper trai-ning to adopt self-defence skills.The ones, who were trained,were later felicitated. The pro-gramme was concluded by anaward ceremony, with prizes gi-ven to those who won accoladesat events organised throughoutthe Delhi Police week.

Police teach girls to fight troublePankhuri.Yadav

@timesgroup.com

SELF-DEFENCE: Delhi Police aims to train over 1 lakh girls and womenunder the programme

Vipin

New Delhi: Two days after a youth wasshot dead by two bikers near his house in so-uthwest Delhi’s Chhawla area, a CCTV foo-tage showing the incident has been recove-red. The footage shows the killers waylay-ing the victim, travelling on a scooter, andshooting him on his forehead.

As the youth fell off the scooter, the kil-ler, wearing a helmet, shot the victim twicebefore fleeing. Police have launched a man-hunt to nab the shooter who has been iden-tified by the deceased’s friend.

The footage showed two men on a mo-torbike overtaking Dinesh’s scooter as soonas they entered a colony road. The pillion ri-der on the motorbike, wearing a red shirt, ran towards Dinesh and shot him onhis forehead. As Dinesh fell off the scooter,they shot two more rounds at his body before fleeing.

Apolice officer said that the killer was acriminal from Jhajjar and was involved infour other murders, including one in 2014.Initial probe revealed that Dinesh had anargument with the killers during a cricketmatch where he had abused the accused’sfamily members. “We have questioned Di-nesh’s family and friends and will soon ma-ke a breakthrough,” the officer added.

CCTV shows bikersshooting man

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Gurgaon: A 28-year-old wo-man doctor attempted suicideby jumping in front of a run-ning train, moments after itentered the platform at GuruDronacharya Metro station onMonday morning. The train,which had already sloweddown and was about to stop, hitthe woman, throwing her offthe tracks.

Nishat, a healthcare pro-fessional who works at an in-surance firm located on Mat-hura road in Delhi, has beenadmitted to a nearby privatehospital, where doctors ter-med her condition to be serio-

us. Sources said the womansustained fractures in herright hand and a leg.

The incident, which tookplace on the Delhi Metro’s Yel-low line, disrupted services foraround 10 minutes.

Preliminary probe revea-led that Nishat was standingon platform No. 2 apparentlyto board a train towards Ja-hangirpuri around 7.45am. Asthe train was entering the plat-form, she jumped on thetracks. But, miraculously, shedid not come under the wheels.

The incident was capturedin the CCTV cameras installedat the station. Police said thewoman’s family members we-re also clueless as to why shetook the extreme step.

Womandoctor jumps

in front ofMetro, critical

The incident disrupted Metroservices for 10 minutes

Sanjay Yadav & Gayas Eapen TNN

New Delhi: The Delhi go-vernment, in a first-of-its-kinddrive, has cleared 72,000 casesof refund to dealers registeredwith the value-added tax(VAT) department in a span ofaround six months. These ca-ses involve clearance of duesamounting to Rs 850 crore,which also includes the inter-est amount accrued over theyears due to delays in refund.In many cases, the delay inredressing the refund cases isup to 17 years. This clean-up ispart of the process to pruneand prepare the system for thetransition to the GST regime.

Another 68,000-odd casesare still to be dealt with andthe VAT department is trying

to expedite the process beforeswitching to the GST regime.VAT commissioner H RajeshPrasad told TOI, “There werea total of 1.4 lakh cases, whichwere pending for refund withthe VAT department with thependency dating back to 2005.The refund process has to becompleted by March, accor-ding to the deadline set forshifting to the GST regime.The department says it is try-ing hard to deal with the highbacklog and deliver on time.”

Prasad explained thatVAT officers across the citywere asked to take out all thepending cases and preparelists for quick disposal. Sour-ces said that over the years, de-aling with refund cases wasseen as the last priority, hencethe cases kept piling up.

72k refund casescleared in 6 months

Ambika.Pandit@timesgroup.com