Guwahati, March 4: The finance (taxation) department of the Assam government has asked all district commissioners in the state to establish special task forces to monitor and crackdown on illegal brick kilns, in collaboration with local authorities, GST officials and Pollution Control Board officials.
In a communique to the district commissioners, Virendra Mittal, commissioner and secretary, finance (taxation) department, stated that such units have been doing business without discharging the applicable tax, causing substantial loss of revenue.
“It has also come to notice that they have not taken pollution control license which is a violation of environmental norms,” Mittal stated.
The GST Council has introduced various measures to curb tax evasion, including the composition scheme for brick kilns, whereby the rate of tax of brick kilns is kept at 6 percent (without input tax credit) and for other categories, it is kept at 12 percent (with input tax credit).
“However, many kilns continue to operate illegally without obtaining necessary registration prescribed under Section 22 of the GST Act and those that are registered do not comply with the applicable tax liability as prescribed under the GST Act,” he stated.
Further, the official asked the district commissioners to obtain a “no dues certificate from the jurisdictional tax office before issue of any licence to any unit.
“The brick kilns within your jurisdiction may be given three months’ time to get themselves regularised in this regard,” the official stated.