Enforcement Branch fails to detect overloaded trucks
SHILLONG: The State Enforcement Branch has failed to detect movement of as many as 85,622 trucks carrying load in excess of the permissible limit resulting in short realization of fine amounting to Rs 43.96 crore.
The anomaly has been brought to fore by the CAG report for the year ended March 31, 2014.
According to the CAG report, it was found from the records that between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014, the District Transport Officer (DTO), Enforcement Branch, Shillong detected 54 trucks carrying minerals in excess of the permissible limit of 9 MT at Byrnihat Check post on National Highway 40 using the weighbridge at Umling and realized Rs 0.02 crore as fine.
However, examination of monthly returns furnished by the Transport weighbridge at Umling on the same highway revealed that during the period from April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014, 46967 trucks carrying 1.72 lakh MT of load in excess of the permissible limit passed through the weighbridge.
Thus, DTO, enforcement branch under reported the movement of 46967 trucks carrying load in excess of the permissible limit leading to short realization of fine amounting to Rs 26.58 crore, the CAG report said.
The report also pointed out that despite the information pertaining to actual number of trucks carrying excess load being available with the Commissioner of Taxes, no action was taken by the Commissioner of Taxes to fix responsibility on the DTO for such massive under reporting thereby resulting in huge loss of revenue.
Again, according to the CAG report, between April 1, 2013 and March 31 2014, DTO, Enforcement Branch, Shillong detected 1297 trucks carrying minerals in excess of the permissible limit of 9 MT at Umkiang check post on NH 44 and realized Rs 0.56 crore as fine.
However, cross checks with the records of DMR check post at the same location revealed that during the same period, 39,952 trucks passed through the DMR check post carrying 0.99 lakh MT of load in excess of the permissible limit and the DTO, EB failed to detect 38655 erring trucks thereby resulting in short realization of fine amounting to Rs 17.33 crore.
The CAG had reported the cases to the Transport department in July last year but the reply is still awaited.
