administrative report - wbcomtax.gov

ADMINISTRATIVEREPORT2016 – 2017

DIRECTORATE OF COMMERCIAL TAXESGOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

www.wbcomtax.gov.in

PREFACE

I have the pleasure to present the Annual Administrative Report for the year 2016-17 of theDirectorate of Commercial Taxes, West Bengal.

This has been a very significant year for the directorate as major emphasis has been on thepreparedness for entering into the new unified Tax Regime of GST departing from the federal taxstructure. Team of officers worked hard in drafting of new legal provisions so far they relate to WestBengal. As renewed legal situations will demand suitably equipping our Human Resources, ateam of master trainers has accordingly been developed. Employee database has been updatedfor mapping of duties for each individual in GST regime.

In order to promote e-governance in the exisiting tax law, compulsory use of Digital Signature forfiling online application for Registration has been introduced. Digital Signature for submission ofreturns by registered dealers having turnover of sales in excess of rupees fifty lakhs in the previousyear, or having registration under the Companies Act, is now mandatory. I would like to congratulateall the officers and staff for their ceaseless efforts and also the dealers for their co-operation inmaking the initiatives successful.

When this publication reaches you, the new tax era has already taken its own course puttingbefore us new situations and challanges which I believe all of us would be able to face with duecare and diligence. Though unique to our experiences, I hope that our concerted effort andendeavour in the new tax regime will usher in fiscal prosperity of the State.

Any suggestions for improving the future publications are welcome.

(Smaraki Mahapatra, IAS)Commissioner,

Commercial Taxes, West Bengal

Sl. No. Subject Page No.1. Directorate of Commercial Taxes: 1

(i) Prelude, Pioneering e-governance initiatives and New era Taxation regime 1(ii) Responsibilities Outlined 2(iii) GST and Future of Tax Administration 2-3(iv) Collection of Sales Tax since 1941 3-4(v) Role of Different Branches 6-11

2. Innovative Procedures introduced in 2016-17 113. Major Achievements of Commercial Tax Directorate From 2011-12 to 2016-17 124. Graphical Presentation of Some Achievements 14-185. Awards and Accolades in Credit 19-216. The Organisation 227. Collection and Expenditure 23-248. Circle, Charge and District wise Comparative Collection Figures 24-289. Registration 28

10. Assessment, Appeal Cases 2911. VAT Audit, Revision & Review 3012. Profession Tax Assessment 3013. Compliance to Budget Proposals of 2016-17 3114. Bureau of Investigation 3115. Central Registration Unit 3516. Central Audit Unit 3617. Interstate Verification Cell (H.Q.) 3718. Special Cell 3919. Industrial Promotion Assistance Cell 3920. Internal Audit Wing 4221. Certificate Organisation 4322. Collection Cell 4323. Human Resource Development Cell 4424. Sales Tax Deducted at Source (S.T.D.S.) Cell 4725. Law Section 5126. Fast Track Revisional Authority 5327. The West Bengal Commercial Taxes Appellate and Revisional Board 5428. Public Relation Section 5629. ITC Investigation Unit (IIU) 5830. Online Grievance Redressal System 6031. Central Section 6132. Central Refund Unit 6233. Information Systems Division 6434. Profession Tax Wing 7935. Infrastructure Development 8036. Commodity wise Rate of Tax under Vat Act (Web Link) 8137. Commodity Name with Codes (Web Link) 8138. Profession Tax Schedule (Web Link) 8139. Contact numbers of the offices of this Directorate 8240. Important e-mail Addresses 8541. Email addresses (by name) (Web link) 87

CONTENTS

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Directorate of Commercial Taxes

DIRECTORATE OF COMMERCIAL TAXES, Government of West Bengal

PRELUDE

A single-point sales tax system was introduced by the then Bengal Government in July 1941 in pre-independent India by the enactment of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941.The British Governmentwas obliged to levy tax on sale or consumption primarily to support additional expenditure of the WorldWar-II. But it continued beyond the warring days, and over the years, it has undergone evolutionaryphases till the present day. Today, this form of indirect tax levied on the distributive trade part of commodityvalue chain is the mainstay for the State revenue under the federal setup. Directorate of CommercialTaxes, Government of West Bengal has been administering the tax which accounts for nearly 60% of theState tax-revenue receipts almost across the board.

Substantial research has taken place in the realm of indirect taxation, primarily to deal with itsdynamic nature. Incidence of tax, points of levy, reasonable restriction on movement of goods, easingout cascading effect on the final price, incentives and exemptions and to ensure uniformity of tax infederal setup are a few of the important challenges facing the administrator. Managing evasion is also acritical area. After a lot of deliberations over a considerable period of time, the concept of value-addedtax system, in keeping with the global trend, dawned on our country and was enacted in our state as WestBengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003 w.e.f 01.04.2005. Despite the success of Value Added Tax Act fromrevenue point of view the deliberation is going on at national level for introduction of a more improvedtax structure in the form of the Goods and Service Tax Act (in short GST Act) w.e.f. 01.07.2017 –beingstated as the biggest indirect taxation reform in India.

PIONEERING e-GOVERNANCE INITIATIVES

With the dawning of an era of Information and Communication Technology, citizen-centric onlineservices, to bring in efficiency, accountability and transparency have hogged the limelight. Under theInformation Technology (IT) driven new era of tax administration, extensive Government Process Re-engineering (GPR) took place under the Mission Mode Project for Commercial Taxes (MMP-CT) as a partof the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). In the dedicated Mission Mode Project for Commercial Taxes(MMP-CT), the Directorate pioneered in introducing Government Process Re-engineering for ensuringcitizen-centric measures to bring in pace, ease of compliance and transparency in the system. It is needlessto mention that for the above purposes, apart from the fund available under MMPCT scheme the state isalso utilizing its own resources on equal sharing.

NEW ERA TAXATION REGIME

Before introduction of VAT, in the sales tax regime, apart from the problem of multiple taxation andburden of adverse cascading effect of taxes there was also no harmony in the rate of sales tax on differentcommodities among the States and there was often an unhealthy competition among States in the formof ‘rate war’.

West Bengal Value Added Tax Act 2003 entails multi-point levy of tax at each stage of transactionin a value chain, till it reaches the consumer. At each stage, credit of the tax paid on purchase is given inthe form of set off on the tax payable on the corresponding sale.

Incidentally, the concept of VAT has revolutionized the entire indirect taxation system in India.Though it was practiced variously in production part and thereafter introduced in the distributive part ofthe commodity tax, the need for integrating both the parts has also been envisaged in the forthcomingGoods and Service Tax (GST) Act, billed as mother of all indirect taxation reforms in India.

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Administrative Report 2016-17

RESPONSIBILITIES OUTLINED

The Directorate has to maintain a very close interface for the Government of the day with the tradeand industry by way of tax administration. Starting from monitoring closely the trade and commerce ofthe State to regulating the movement of goods, besides catering to the primary obligation of revenuemobilization, form few of its critical tasks.

In doing so, the Directorate administers hosts of commodity taxation related Acts, like

i. The West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003

ii. The West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994

iii. The Central Sales Tax Act, 1956

iv. The West Bengal State Tax on Profession, Trades, Callings and Employments Act, 1979

v. The West Bengal Primary Education Act, 1973. (for the limited purpose of Education Cess)

vi. The West Bengal Rural Employment and Production Act, 1976 (for the limited purpose ofRural Employment Cess)

vii. The West Bengal Transport Infrastructure Development Fund Act, 2002

viii. The West Bengal Sales Tax (Settlement of Dispute) Act, 1999

ix. The West Bengal Tax on Entry of Goods in Local Areas Act , 2012

This apart, anti-evasion activity that forms a vital part of tax administration requires close observanceof the provisions of Indian Penal Code 1860 and The Code of Criminal Procedure 1973.

Besides, the day-to-day tax administration entails a good part of general administration and officeprocedures, by closely observing West Bengal Treasury Rules, 2008, West Bengal Financial Rules, 1979& West Bengal Service Rules, 2009.

GST AND FUTURE OF TAX ADMINISTRATION

The proposed Goods and Service Tax is being identified by experts as the most important leaptowards future of tax administration in which public policy changes are to come about in a big way. Acomprehensive Goods and Services Tax (GST) based on VAT principle is targeted to be a simple, transparentand efficient system of indirect taxation as has been adopted by over 150 countries around the world.This involves taxation of goods and services in an integrated manner as the blurring of line of demarcationbetween goods and services has made separate taxation of goods and services untenable.

GST has also been identified as a singularly complex project where mission-critical IT systems needto be applied to introduce Government Process Re-engineering (GPR). The government is working on aspecial IT platform for smooth implementation of GST christened as GSTN (Goods and Services TaxNetwork).

Thus we have a twin task at hand. GST is going to be dual tax levied both by Central and StateGovt, when it subsumes State VAT, Central Excise, Service Tax and few other indirect taxes. It will belevied at every stage of production-distribution chain of goods and services in a broad-based, single,comprehensive tax regime. So far as administering State GST (SGST), the Directorate is going to assumea dominant role, while Central GST (CGST) is to be governed by Central Government and IGST shallhave dual jurisdiction. And equally important role awaits us when under the proposed command thenew concept of destination-based tax system takes place, as we would move up from the sub-nationaldomain to integrate in a pan Indian scenario.

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On the technology front, the spotlight is going to be on this part of the world as significant changesare underway in terms of reforms of the system and application of Information and CommunicationTechnology (ICT) to bring about the desired change. For IT driven governance initiatives the administrationof indirect tax can well be the home page for Government of the State.

COLLECTION OF SALES TAX / VAT/CST IN THE DIRECTORATE SINCE 1941

SL YEAR COLLECTION GROWTH SL NO YEAR COLLECTION GROWTHNO (In Rs. Cr) over last year (In Rs. Cr) over last year

( % ) ( % )

1 1941-42 0.18 ** 2 1942-43 0.81 350.00

3 1943-44 1.29 59.26 4 1944-45 2.63 103.88

5 1945-46 4.74 80.23 6 1946-47 3.00 -36.71

7 1947-48 2.66 -11.33 8 1948-49 5.13 92.86

9 1949-50 5.54 7.99 10 1950-51 6.15 11.01

11 1951-52 6.72 9.27 12 1952-53 6.31 -6.10

13 1953-54 6.56 3.96 14 1954-55 7.61 16.01

15 1955-56 9.05 18.92 16 1956-57 10.99 21.44

17 1957-58 12.58 14.47 18 1958-59 16.70 32.75

19 1959-60 17.20 2.99 20 1960-61 19.72 14.65

21 1961-62 21.45 8.77 22 1962-63 24.68 15.06

23 1963-64 32.18 30.39 24 1964-65 36.89 14.64

25 1965-66 45.38 23.01 26 1966-67 48.65 7.21

27 1967-68 52.30 7.50 28 1968-69 56.89 8.78

29 1969-70 63.31 11.28 30 1970-71 67.93 7.30

31 1971-72 74.18 9.20 32 1972-73 91.24 23.00

33 1973-74 101.69 11.45 34 1974-75 125.07 22.99

35 1975-76 159.12 27.22 36 1976-77 182.47 14.67

37 1977-78 198.02 8.52 38 1978-79 237.20 19.79

39 1979-80 281.07 18.49 40 1980-81 299.55 6.57

41 1981-82 338.27 12.93 42 1982-83 389.63 15.18

43 1983-84 450.06 15.51 44 1984-85 536.88 19.29

45 1985-86 630.19 17.38 46 1986-87 697.07 10.61

47 1987-88 833.08 19.51 48 1988-89 968.18 16.22

49 1989-90 1071.08 10.63 50 1990-91 1228.12 14.66

51 1991-92 1415.76 15.28 52 1992-93 1624.95 14.78

53 1993-94 1817.54 11.85 54 1994-95 2098.97 15.48

55 1995-96 2455.58 16.99 56 1996-97 2716.47 10.62

57 1997-98 2849.36 4.89 58 1998-99 3123.17 9.61

59 1999-2000 3446.64 10.36 60 2000-01 3770.78 9.40

61 2001-02 3814.00 1.15 62 2002-03 4200.22 10.13

63 2003-04 4836.99 15.16 64 2004-05 5721.70 18.29

65 2005-06 6118.32 6.93 66 2006-07 7108.73 16.19

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67 2007-08 8092.59 13.84 68 2008-09 8981.74 10.99

69 2009-10 10623.68 18.28 70 2010-11 13368.44 25.84

71 2011-12 15979.06 19.53 72 2012-13 18541.96 16.04

73 2013-14 21852.83 17.86 74 2014-15 24142.64 10.48

75 2015-16 26337.10 9.09 76 2016-17 28181.32 7.00

Collection and Growth Trend for the last Ten Years

SL YEAR COLLECTION GROWTH SL NO YEAR COLLECTION GROWTHNO (In Rs. Cr) over last year (In Rs. Cr) over last year

( % ) ( % )

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ROLE OF DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF THE DIRECTORATE

BRANCH NAME OFFICERS ATTACHED MAIN FUNCTIONS

CHARGE 1) JCCT (In-charge) Grant registration to dealers (at offices outside[This is the basic field level 2) DCCT Kolkata)Acts as the first level contact point of assessees.office that exercises territorial 3) CTO Amendment, cancellation and restoration ofjurisdiction] 4) ACTO Registration Certificate.

Collection and day to day monitoring of tax payableby dealers under jurisdiction.Issue of manual waybill [in limited cases] anddeclaration forms, Grant Enrolment to transporters.Scrutiny & verification of returns.Assessment of tax payable by dealers and Special Audit.Realisation of Assessed dues & Return Dues.Refund of tax to dealers.Maintenance of records of dealers.Search and Seizure of books of accounts, documentsetc from the premises of the dealer in fit cases.Administration of Profession Tax Act and Rules.

CIRCLE 1) Sr. JCCT Administrative control over the Charges under its[A Circle comprises of two (Administrative) & jurisdiction.or more Charges] Sr. JCCT (Appellate) Hear and dispose Appeal and Revision cases arising

2) JCCT out of orders passed by officers of Charges under its3) ACTO jurisdiction.

Refund of tax to dealers.Grant registration to dealers under its jurisdiction[under WBST Act].Conduct VAT Audit of dealers selected.Dispose security cases.Reopen deemed/summary assessments.

Large Tax Payer Unit 1) Special CCT Collection and day to day monitoring of tax payable[This unit, earlier known as 2) Sr. JCCT by dealers under jurisdiction.Corporate Division, is 3) JCCT Scrutiny & verification of returns.constituted with big tax payers 4) ACTO Assessment of tax payable by dealers.in and around Kolkata] Issue of manual waybill and forms (in limited cases).

Amendment, Cancellation & Restoration ofRegistration Certificate.Conduct VAT Audit / Special Audit of dealers selected.Hear and dispose Appeal and Revision cases arisingout of orders passed by officers of LTU.

CHECK POST 1) DCCT Monitor movement of incoming and outgoing goods[Check Posts are located at 2) CTO vehicles & physical checking of goods.the inter-state borders] 3) ACTO Barcode endorsement of waybill and TD.

Endorse manual waybills produced by importer/dealer.Seizure of goods and imposition & realization ofPenalty Wayside checking.

RANGES 1) Sr. JCCT (In-charge) Administrative control over the check posts under its2) JCCT jurisdiction.3) DCCT Conduct wayside checking relating to goods4) CTO movement.5) ACTO Search of vehicles carrying goods inunauthorized

manner or warehouses and Seizure of goods.Imposition and realisation of penalty.

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Present functions :Monitor functioning of airport and dock check posts.Survey to bring unregistered dealers who are liableto take registration into the tax net.Monitor non-resident dealers who have no permanentplace of business in WB.Issue waybills to unregistered dealers.Monitor exhibition sales.Conduct auction sale of seized goods.

Examine and dispose of applications for grant of orrenewal of Eligibility Certificate under the West BengalIncentive Scheme, 1993 and West Bengal IncentiveScheme, 1999 that would allow the applicant dealerstax exemption, remission or deferment of sales taxrelated o the eligible unit.

Examine and dispose online applications forregistration filed by dealers through IT System only.

Conduct audit of dealers assigned to it by theCommissioner of Commercial Taxes, W.B. and to raisedemand,Develop a dynamic Risk Analysis module on the basisof which the dealers are to be selected for audit,Help the Commissioner in the selection procedure ofdealers for audit,Impart training to audit officers.

Verification of the genuineness of claims of variousinterstate transactions such as stock transfer, sale,purchase, consignment sales, subsequent sales.Processing of requests from other states of India forverification of the genuineness of ‘C’ and ‘F’ Formsand of authenticity of interstate transactions claimedto have been effected by their dealers with the dealersof West Bengal.Liaison with various Check posts and Ranges to assistthem in determining bona fide of transactions betweenconsignors and consignees by making enquiriesregarding existence of dealers.

To keep track of daily collection of CommercialTaxes—VAT, Central Sales Tax, Rural EmploymentCess, Primary Education Cess on coal and Cess onDiesel, Petrol and L.P.G.To prepare systematic, detailed as well as summarizedstatements of collection of various taxes for digitization.To keep records of adjustment of taxes through booksand refunds.


CENTRAL SECTION

Officers posted here exercisejurisdiction all over the state.It earlier had three units – atKolkata, Asansol and Siliguriwhich are now merged withBureaus of Investigation. Allinvestigative and preventivejobs of CS are now donethrough BIs.

1) Sr. JCCT (In-charge)

2) JCCT

3) DCCT

4) CTO

5) ACTO

SPECIAL CELL

(under o/o the CCT,WB)


2) JCCT

3) DCCT

4) CTO

5) ACTOCENTRAL REGISTRATIONUNIT

(under o/o the CCT , WB )

1) Sr. JCCT

2) JCCT

3) DCCT

4) CTO

5) ACTO

CENTRAL AUDIT UNIT

(under o/o the CCT, WB )

1) Additional CCT

2) Sr. JCCT

3) JCCT

4) DCCT

5) CTO

6) ACTO

INTERSTATE VERIFICATIONCELL (H.Q)

(under o/o the CCT, WB)


2) JCCT

3) DCCT

4) CTO

5) ACTO

COLLECTION CELL(Challan/PaymentVerification Wing)


1) Additional CCT2) Sr JCCT3) JCCT4) DCCT

5) CTO6) ACTO

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INTERNAL AUDIT WING To scrutinize assessment orders, audit reports, records,other registers to detect and preventa. Incorrect determination of turnover of salesb. Underassessment of tax due to incorrect deductionc. Irregular exemptiond. Application of incorrect rate of tax and mistake in

computatione. Non / Short levy of interest and penaltyf. Non / Short levy of purchase taxTo share views on the different aspects of the auditdone by the A.G. Office.To collect the replies from the concerned officersregarding IR Paras, Draft Paras, CAG Paras andprocess and send to the A.G. Office and FinanceDepartment.

To organise induction training of Commercial TaxOfficer and Assistant Commercial Tax Officer foroverall qualitative improvement in the work cultureof this organization.To arrange in-service training programmes includingtraining in basics of information technology of officersand employees up to the level of Lower DivisionClerks.To organise Workshops, Case Studies, Groupdiscussions and Interactive sessions.To keep liaison with ATI, nominate officers for trainingunder National Training Policy.

Investigation about evasion of tax and submission ofreport.Search a dealer’s place of business including hisfactory, office, warehouse and residence.Seize records, documents as well as physical stock ofgoods.In appropriate cases of tax evasion, complaints arelodged with the police authorities for taking necessaryaction against commission of offence.

ITC INVESTIGATION UNIT Investigation on claim of unauthorized ITC, Investigatefraudulent transactions and Bill trading.Identification of bogus dealers.Feed Charges with documents and information for ab-initio cancellation of non-existent dealers who haveobtained registration by furnishing fake documents.Lodging complaints with Police for prosecution forviolation of Law.


1) Additional CCT2) Sr. JCCT3) JCCT4) DCCT

HUMAN RESOURCEDEVELOPMENT CELL(under o/o the CCT, WB )

1) Additional CCT2) Sr JCCT3) JCCT4) DCCT5) CTO6) ACTO

BUREAU OFINVESTIGATION -1, 2 and 3[Bureau of Investigation is aspecialized wing of theCommercial TaxesDirectorate having 3 Unitsfor investigation of cases oftax evasion under the WBSTAct, 1994, CST Act, 1956and WBVAT Act, 2003 asalso Entry Tax Act, 2012 andP.T. Act, 1979 andmalpractices connectedtherewith. It has a policewing]

1) Special Officer andAdditional CCT foreach Unit2) Sr. JCCT3) JCCT4) DCCT5) CTO6) ACTO

1) Sr. JCCT

2) JCCT

3) DCCT

4) CTO

5) ACTO

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To monitor disputes between the aggrieved partiesand the State of West Bengal at different legal forums,including West Bengal Commercial Taxes Appellateand Revisional Board, West Bengal Taxation Tribunal,State Administrative Tribunal, Kolkata High Court andSupreme Court of India and other Civil and CriminalCourts.

To maintain liaison with Legal Remembrance’s Office,G.P.’s Office of the State Govt. and the State Lawyers,senior advocates of the Supreme Court of India andthe concerned authorities.

To provide the Departmental Representatives with theappellate and assessment records for effectiverepresentation before the Appellate and RevisionalBoard and to arrange transmission of order of theBoard to the concerned departmental authorities.

Study orders of different courts and move to the higherforum in deserving cases.

It performs the duty of engagement of lawyers andmonitors the cases in respect of disputes in relation tothe Service Matter of the employees of this Directoratein SAT and Courts.

Collection of Sales Tax deducted at source from thepayment made to the works contractors by differentGovernment and Non-Government Organisations.

To monitor the collection from STDS.

To provide help to contractor / contractee in gettingonline services.

To provide information to Charge and Circle officesas and when sought for to help in bringing the WorksContractors under the tax net.

It also monitors tax collected at source from sellersby Govt. etc.

To process and dispose both pre-assessment and postassessment refund application of dealers.


LAW SECTION


1) Additional CCT

2) Sr. JCCT

3) JCCT

4) DCCT

5) CTO

6) ACTO

SALES TAX DEDUCTIONAT SOURCE (S.T.D.S.) CELL


1) Additional CCT

2) Sr. JCCT

3) JCCT

4) DCCT

5) CTO

6) ACTO

CENTRAL REFUND UNIT(CRU)


1) Additional CCT

2) Sr. JCCT

3) JCCT

4) DCCT

5) CTO

6) ACTO

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Communication with the Union Government andother State Governments on present and prospectiveissues of Taxation;Publication of Advertisements required to bepublished in Newspapers;Publication of Trade Circulars in the event of anyamendment of Act, Rules, Procedures etc.Giving written/telephonic replies to queries made byGovernments, various institutions, Tax payers,Dealers, Tax Practitioners, Trade Bodies and otherpersons;Publication of Departmental Circulars issued by theCommissioner of Commercial Taxes, W.B. guidingthe officers of the Directorate on certain importantissues;Processing of pre-budget proposals received fromtrade, industry and individuals on the taxation mattersdealt in by the DirectoratePublication of orders made by the Commissioner ofCommercial Taxes, W.B. in relation to applicationsmade before him u/s. 102 of the W.B. VAT Act, 2003;Attending seminars, symposiums organised by Tradebodies and other associations.Disposal of incentive applications of mega, large,medium, small and micro industrial units.

Fast disposal of revision (2nd Appeal) cases, transferredfrom Appellate & Revisional Board

To cause recovery of tax dues as referred to byassessing authorities.

To arrange build up I.T. infrastructure for the entireCommercial Tax Directorate, West Bengal Appellateand Revisional Board, West Bengal Taxation Tribunaland the Policy Planning UnitTo ensure proper maintenance of hardware, networkand connectivity by coordinating among variousservice providers.To act as nodal agency for successful implementationof Mission Mode Project in Commercial Tax (MMP-CT) under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP)To streamline rolling out of various e-services andprovide initial handholding support to all stakeholderslike taxpayers and officers and employees of theDirectorateTo report the Finance Department, West Bengal StateLegislative Assembly, Government of India onutilization of fundTo update and maintain the internal and externalwebsite


PUBLIC RELATION OFFICE


1) AdditionalCommissioner

2) JCCT

3) DCCT

3) CTO

FAST TRACK COURT (non-functional now)

AdditionalCommissioner

CERTIFICATEORGANISATION

1) Additional CCT2) Sr. JCCT3) JCCT4) DCCT5) CTO6) ACTO

INFORMATION SYSTEMSDIVISION


1) Additional CCT

2) Sr. JCCT

3) JCCT

4) DCCT

5) CTO

6) ACTO

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Charge offices

1. Survey of Potential Tax Payers and widen ProfessionTax network.2. Persuation of enrolment of un-enrolled persons&registration of un-registered employers.3. Investigation.4. Attending Camp, Seminars, symposium organisedby different Professional associations and trade bodies.5. Assessment of registered employer.

6. Realization of dues.

PT Head Quarters

1. Collection of data centrally from differentorganisations.2. Monitor Collection.3. Public liaison by giving replies to Communicationreceived from different government departments,corporate bodies, tax payers, tax practitioners, tradebodies and other persons on issues of various Taxqueries through writing /e-mail/telephone.4. Publication of Advertisement in the news papersas required.5. Preparation of pre-budget proposals.

6. Attending Camp, Seminars, symposium organisedby different Professional associations and trade bodies.

7. Impart training and work shop to departmentalofficers and associations and trade bodies.

8. To act as nodal agency to conceive variouse-services, maintain system and website in liaison withNIC.

9. Investigation.

2. INNOVATIVE PROCEDURES INTRODUCED IN 2016-17

Introduction of Dealer's Place Visit Entry Module for CTD officials

A module has been developed to monitor the visit of the field officers to any dealer's place ofbusiness. The officer needs to obtain permission from controlling authority prior to visit and also to postthe report on visit subsequently. This has eliminated chance of unauthorized visit to dealer's place by anyperson and harassment of the tax payers. This has also helped in effective monitoring of follow up actions.

Introduction of Employee Details Module for GSTN

To develop an employee database an application was developed for all employees in view ofmapping of duties for each individual in GST regime. This database has also provided a source ofinformation for the newly introduced HR Management System of the Finance Department.

Mandatory Submission of Return using Digital Signature

In its continuous endeavour to promote e-governance among citizens, the Directorate had decidedto extend the facility of submission of return using digital signature to larger number of registered dealers


PROFESSION TAX WING

(Profession Tax HeadQuarter and Charge Offices)

1) Commissioner ofProfession Tax

2) SpecialCommissioner ofProfession Tax

3) Sr. JCCT

4) JCCT

5) Public InformationOfficer

6) DCCT

7) CTO

8) ACTO

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with effect from quarter ending 30 th June, 2016. Accordingly the West Bengal Value Added Tax Rules2005, has been amended. According to the amendment, all registered dealers filing return in Form 14/14D/15/15R having turnover of sales or contractual transfer price or both in the immediate previous year,i.e., 2015-16, in excess of rupees fifty lakhs or having registration under the Companies Act, 1956, or theCompanies Act, 2013, shall have to furnish return using digital signature mandatorily from quarter ending30th June, 2016, in terms of amended rule 34A(3) of WBVAT Rules, 2005. These dealers need not submitany signed hard copy of the said return furnished on line or the acknowledgement thereof.

Discontinuation of submission of printed copy of returns

Compulsory use of Digital Signature for filing online application for Registration

To make registration process under the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003 simpler and toensure quick disposal of the applications for new registration the West Bengal Finance Act, 2017 (WB ActIII), has introduced some changes in the registration process. Sending of printed copies of supportingdocuments has been done away with. This has reduced the time required for disposal of new registrationapplications as the delay in postal communication will be fully eliminated.

Settlement of Dispute

A new Settlement of Dispute Scheme had been introduced on 30th December, 2016 to dispose anumber of assessment and audit cases under all Acts completed on or before 31st March, 2014. Morethan Rs. 300 Crore was collected from this scheme.

3. MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS OF COMMERCIAL TAX DIRECTORATE FROM 2011-12 TO 2016-17

Universal computerisation of all processes of Commercial Taxes with state of the art data and webservers at State Data Centre. All erstwhile manual processes have been replaced by computerisedprocesses reducing service delivery time and physical interface.

The e-governance initiative in Commercial Tax Directorate has got several national level awards:

(a) CSI Nihilent e-governance award for back end processes through IMPACT in 2013-14

(b) Won Trophy at 13th National Conference on e-Governance in 2014-15

(c) Skoch Award for e-Grievances and GRIPS in 2014-15

(d) Skoch Order of Merit for GRIPS and e-Grievances in 2014-15

(e) Skoch Order of Merit for Promoting, Simplification, Transparency and Ease in the CommercialTax Processes in 2014-15

(f) Skoch Award for e-Governance in Profession Tax, 2014-15

(g) National Silver Award for e-Governance, 2014-15 for e-Initiatives in Commercial Taxes forExcellence in Government Process Re-engineering

(h) Golden Peacock Innovative Product / Service Award, 2016

(i) CII Appreciation for Contribution of Commercial Tax Directorate towards success of synergyGourBanga, 2014.

These e-initiatives have helped in collection of transaction data. Analysis of collected data resultedin identification of evasion and fraud. The contribution of Data Analysis towards revenue collectionhas grown up from Rs. 174.61 Crore in 2013-14, the starting year, to Rs. 1648.57 Crore in 2016-17.

For the period from 2011-12 to 2016-17 total revenue collection has grown by 74% fromRs. 18367.33 Crore to Rs. 31898.21 Crore.

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Online payments and refund of tax has been made mandatory. In 2012-13, 71.45% payment wasmade online which achieved 100% from 2015-16. All services including submission of return,generation of waybill and statutory forms, filing of appeals have been covered by e-services duringthis period.

Statutory processes for service delivery have been simplified. Granting of Registration within 24hours is compulsory as per statutory provision with removal of pre-registration verification. Thesystem of sending of physical documents for registration has been done away with introduction offiling of application for registration using digital signature and uploading of relevant documents.Procedure for amendment of registration has been made simpler with introduction of onlineamendment facility.

Further to provide relief to small traders the statutory threshold for registration has been increasedfrom five lakh to 10 lakh in 2014-15 and to 20 lakh from 01/04/2017.

Refund processes have been made simpler by reducing procedural steps. The average time ofrefund has been reduced to 258 days in 2011-12 to 44 days (including holidays) in 2015-16. Forapplications made after 01/04/2015, the number of days for refund has been further reduced to twoweeks.

Previously, pre-assessment refund was given against exports and zero-rated sales. The facility hasbeen extended from 2015-16 to dealers having inter-state sale more than 50% of turnover to preventblocking of working capital for them. Post assessment refund has been made compulsory withinone month of disposal of assessment through statute.

To make service of statutory notices and orders and storage of electronic documents DataManagement System has been introduced. This has made all services instant with necessary audittrail of service delivery.

To save taxpayers from unnecessary harassment, the discretionary power for selection of assessmentcases has been replaced by risk-based selection on approval of the Commissioner.

For the sake of transparency and natural justice, issue of draft order of assessment or audit has beenmade mandatory which has reduced the scope of litigation. This coupled with provision of depositof 15% of disputed tax for filing appeal has enabled quick recovery of dues. In 2011-12, collectionof assessed dues in was 21.36 Crore which has grown to 544.44 Crore in 2016-17 registering anaverage annual growth rate of 381%. Regular updated information of assessed dues provided throughdata analysis also has helped in better recovery.

For quick disposal of appeal cases, the statutory time limitation for disposal of appeal has beenreduced to 6 months from earlier one year period. Monitoring of appeal and pre-deposit of 15% ofdisputed tax have been introduced through data analysis. To clear backlog revision cases at theAppellate Board, Fast Track Courts have been set up for their early disposal.

Settlement of Dispute Schemes have been introduced twice one in 2015-16 and another in 2016-17 to clear off old cases pending before appellate and revisional authorities. This has resulted inone time disposal of many long pending cases and realisation of locked dues to the tune of Rs. 112Crore in 2015-16 and 290.80 Crore in 2016-17.

For small and medium business enterprises simplified annual return has been introduced. From2013-14, a new scheme has been introduced for small entrepreneurs for registration with provisionfor payment of lump sum tax without maintenance of statutory formalities including filing of returnswith guarantee of non-interference of the administration in their business affairs. This has increasedtax compliance among small entrepreneurs and helped them do their business without fear.

14


Collection of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) has increased manifolds by integrating governmentpayment to contractors through IFMS with tax deduction. The collection has jumped from 335.34Crore in 2011-12 to 1235.58 Crore in 2016-17 with average annual growth of 45%.

4. GRAPHICAL PRERSENTATION OF SOME ACHIEVEMENTS

E-PAYMENT: VAT, CST AND WBST

Sl No Year Count of challan Amount of tax in Crore

1 2011-2012 5,01,044 15,719.54

2 2012-2013 4,32,303 15,852.44

3 2013-2014 6,22,716 19,509.65

4 2014-2015 12,22,608 23,399.52

5 2015-2016 17,98,009 26,057.82

6 2016-2017 17,86,084 27,860.90

15


Demand raised & Collection of assessed dues in five years

Period TOTAL INITIATION Total Demand TOTAL AMT Collection as(VAT+CST+AUDIT) (VAT+CST+AUDIT) PAID[VAT+CST] percentage of

in Crore in Crore Demand

2011-2012 64044 5,266.09 21.36 0.41

2012-2013 58078 7,327.43 34.30 0.47

2013-2014 39484 7,717.81 119.39 1.55

2014-2015 27349 5,626.62 122.15 2.17

2015-2016 21620 3,181.01 442.88 13.92

2016-2017 31114 3,158.94 544.44 17.23

16


GARNISHEE PROCEEDINGS

Sl No Year No of Garnishee Amount Realised inCrores of Rs.

1 2011-2012 71 0.22

2 2012-2013 152 0.64

3 2013-2014 503 7.25

4 2014-2015 666 17.59

5 2015-2016 2151 121.72

5 2016-2017 2161 446.36

17


18


PERFORMANCE OF BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION ANDITC INVESTIGATION UNIT

Sl. No. Year No. of Investigation Total Collection inCompleted Crores of Rs.

1 2012-2013 418 191.04

2 2013-2014 570 410.21

3 2014-2015 1140 494.28

4 2015-2016 1095 670.57

5 2016-2017 644 676.15

**For 2011-2012 to 2013-2014, Figures include earlier componentsof BI Units; Collection of 2016-17 includes Rs. 50.80 Cr. of IIU

19


5. Awards and Accolades in credit5. Awards and Accolades in credit5. Awards and Accolades in credit5. Awards and Accolades in credit5. Awards and Accolades in credit

CSI-NIHILENTE-GOVERNANCE

AWARDSFOR IMPACT

2013-14

TROPHY WONAT 13TH NATIONALCONFERENCE ONE-GOVERNANCE

2014-15

SKOCH AWARDFOR

E GRIEVANCES ANDGRIPS

2014-15

20


SKOCH ORDER OF MERITFOR

GRIPS2014-15


E GRIEVANCES2014-15


PROMOTING SIMPLIFICATION,TRANSPARENCY AND EASE IN

THE COMMERCIAL TAXESPROCESSES

2014-15

SKOCH AWARDFOR

E GOVERNANCE INPROFESSION TAX

2014-15

21


NATIONAL SILVERAWARD FOR

E GOVERNANCE, 2014-15FOR

E INITIATIVES INCOMMERCIAL TAXESFOR EXCELLANCE IN

GOVERNMENT PROCESSRE-ENGINEERING

WINNEROF

GOLDEN PEACOCK INNOVATIVE PRODUCT/SERVICEAWARD

2016

CII APPRECIATION FORCONTRIBUTION OF

CT DTE TOWARDS SUCCESSOF

SYNERGY GOUR BANGA, 2014

22


6. THE ORGANISATION

(A) SANCTIONED ORGANISATIONAL STRENGTH IN THE COMMERCIAL TAXES DIRECTORATE:

Designation Sanctioned strength Men in position 2016-17 Vacancy

Commissioner of Commercial Tax 1 1 Nil

Commissioner of Profession Tax 1 1 Nil

Special Commissioner 13 4 9

Addl. Commissioner 42 41 1

Senior Joint Commissioner 1105 99 105

Joint Commissioner 173

Deputy Commissioner 155

Commercial Tax Officer 573

Senior Joint Commissioner 3 3 Nil(Accounts)

Senior Joint Commissioner (Audit) 3 0 3

System Analyst 1 1 Nil

Programmer 1 1 Nil

Assistant Commercial Tax Officer 1220 1041 179

P.A. to Commissioner 2 2 Nil

P.A. to S.O. B.I. 1 1 Nil

Administrative Officer 4 4 Nil

P.A. Grade II (schedule B) 17 7 10

Group ‘B’ & ‘C’ staff 1891 750 1141

Group ‘D’ Staff 1449 393 1056

Total 5754 3250 2504

NOTES : (1) Commercial Tax Officers and upwards work as Assessing and Audit officers. The CommercialTax Officers are recruited either through Group ‘A’ of the West Bengal Civil Services (Exe) Etc.Examinations or by way of promotion from the Assistant Commercial Tax Officers.

(2) The Assistant Commercial Tax Officers basically work at the field level to assist the Assessingand Audit authorities. The Assistant Commercial Tax Officers are now recruited either throughGroup ‘C’ of the West Bengal Civil Services (Exe) Etc. Examinations or by way of promotion fromthe post of Head Clerks / Upper Division Clerks.

23


7. COLLECTION AND EXPENDITURE

Collection under different Acts (F.Y. 2012-13 to F.Y. 2016-17) and Expenditure

(A) Collection 2012 -13 2013 -14 Growth in 2014 -15 Growth in 2015 -16 Growth in 2016 -17 Growth in2013 -14 2014 -15 2015 -16 2016 -17

(Rs. Cr) (Rs. Cr) % (Rs. Cr) % (Rs. Cr) % (Rs. Cr) %

The West Bengal Value 11860.27 14510.9 22.35 16028.90 10.46 17285.91 7.84 18318.41 5.97Added Tax Act, 2003

The West Bengal Sales 5324.08 5873.46 10.32 6566.72 11.80 7151.80 8.91 7426.51 3.84Tax Act, 1994 (Gross)

Refund 51.29 94.69 84.62 153.9 62.53 114.45 -25.63 80.04 -30.07

The Central Sales Tax 1357.61 1468.47 8.17 1547.02 5.35 1899.39 22.78 2436.40 28.27Act, 1956

The West Bengal State 447.4 463.85 3.68 463.85 0.00 485.47 4.66 509.09 4.87Tax on Profession, Trades,Callings and EmploymentsAct 1979

The West Bengal Primary 1536.35 1635.25 6.44 1669.95 2.12 1725.68 3.34 1800.95 4.36Education Act,1973 &The W.B. RuralEmployment andProduction Act,1976

The West Bengal 393.81 389.17 -1.18 393.02 0.99 472.73 20.28 472.53 -0.04Transport InfrastructureDevelopment FundAct, 2002

The West Bengal Tax on 1266.07 988.66 -21.91 855.55 -13.46 837.69 -2.09 934.32 11.54Entry of Goods into LocalAreas Act , 2012

Total Collection 22185.59 25329 .76 1 4 . 1 7 27525 .01 8 . 6 7 29858 .67 8 . 4 8 31898 .21 6 . 8 3

(B) Expenditure

i) Administrative Expenses 27.51 26.22 -4.69 25.44 -2.97 33.69 32.43 32.07 -4.81

ii) Collection Charges 149.22 146.82 -1.61 155.22 5.72 138.60 -10.71 149.25 7.68

Total Expenditure 176.73 173.04 -2.09 180.66 4.40 172.29 -4.63 181.32 5.24

(C) Expenditure as 0 .80 0 .68 0 .66 0 .58 0 .57percentage of collection :

24


8 . (A) CIRCLE WISE COMPARATIVE COLLECTION OF SALES TAX ACT, VAT & CST (Rs. in Crore)

S l Circle / Division 2014-15 2015-16 % Growth 2016-17 % GrowthNo over previous over previous

year year

1 Corporate Division 16222.70 17577.11 8.35 18955.27 7.84

2 Burrabazar 204.49 220.34 7.75 246.90 12.05

3 Kolkata (North) 340.29 364.34 7.07 380.05 4.31

4 Kolkata (South) 1111.48 1405.71 26.47 1456.98 3.65

5 Chowringhee 460.48 516.66 12.20 547.04 5.88

6 Dharmatalla 636.97 701.01 10.05 718.05 2.43

7 24 Parganas 763.86 851.51 11.47 821.67 -3.50

8 Behala 639.59 753.50 17.81 766.19 1.68

9 Howrah 236.95 277.97 17.31 309.88 11.48

10 Bally 340.54 265.05 -22.17 290.71 9.68

11 Medinipur 603.29 602.41 -0.15 577.25 -4.18

12 Asansol 655.63 753.28 14.89 799.16 6.09

13 Durgapur 588.66 607.50 3.20 643.03 5.85

14 Baharampur 185.72 252.76 36.10 272.53 7.82

15 Siliguri 570.06 588.39 3.22 672.14 14.23

16 Raiganj 98.27 144.65 47.20 172.30 19.11

17 Jalpaiguri 102.90 159.81 55.30 178.54 11.72

18 Checkposts, Ranges 380.77 295.10 -22.50 373.64 26.61& others

TOTAL 24142.64 26337.10 9.09 28181.32 7.00

# Figures as per DAW data and include Charge wise STDS data processed on 19-05-2017.* With effect from 01-01-2017 tax on sale of alcohol under WBST Act has been abolished.

25


8 . (B) CHARGE WISE COMPARATIVE COLLECTION OF SALES TAX, VAT & CST (Rs. in Crore)

S l Charge / Division 2014-15 2015-16 % Growth 2016-17 % Growthno over previous over previous

year year1 Large Taxpayers Unit 16356.36 17577.11 7.46 18,955.27 7.842 Alipore 167.16 214.45 28.28 201.24 -6.163 Amratala 66.18 68.49 3.50 72.84 6.344 Armenian Street 37.74 37.41 -0.87 38.69 3.435 Asansol 573.85 664.25 15.75 695.10 4.646 Baharampur 94.54 150.81 59.52 160.90 6.697 Bally 40.52 45.44 12.13 51.02 12.288 Ballygunge 320.49 398.21 24.25 441.23 10.809 Balurghat 7.63 16.30 113.69 20.70 26.97

10 Bankura 62.74 84.89 35.30 86.00 1.3111 Barasat 79.18 129.03 62.97 106.75 -17.2712 Bardhaman 61.24 81.26 32.69 92.51 13.8413 Barrackpore 133.73 147.22 10.09 157.25 6.8114 Baruipur 191.71 118.54 -38.17 131.10 10.6015 Beadon Street 61.47 57.38 -6.66 66.85 16.5116 Behala 206.31 249.21 20.79 256.23 2.8217 Belgachia 42.73 47.08 10.17 43.54 -7.5218 Beliaghata 90.96 103.22 13.48 105.84 2.5419 Bhabanipur 258.35 332.21 28.59 324.44 -2.3420 Bowbazar 97.90 98.79 0.91 111.42 12.7921 Budge Budge 63.73 149.85 135.13 153.85 2.6722 Burtola 27.23 26.38 -3.13 28.87 9.4623 Chandney Chawk 81.07 102.40 26.32 97.13 -5.1524 Chinabazar 30.83 29.78 -3.41 32.61 9.5025 College Street 58.21 71.82 23.38 74.94 4.33

26


26 Colootola 81.16 93.37 15.05 85.34 -8.6027 Cooch Behar 63.78 104.94 64.54 113.23 7.9028 Cossipore 45.94 52.46 14.19 51.34 -2.1329 Darjeeling 17.21 17.04 -0.99 16.85 -1.1130 Diamond Harbour 10.68 21.45 100.87 23.76 10.7731 Durgapur 368.16 340.46 -7.52 366.11 7.5432 Esplanade 147.14 154.67 5.12 170.09 9.9733 Ezra Street 108.43 110.35 1.77 125.68 13.8934 Fairley Place 71.40 82.11 14.99 85.58 4.2335 Howrah 33.24 39.68 19.38 40.15 1.1736 Jalpaiguri 39.12 54.86 40.24 65.30 19.0337 Jorabagan 69.38 77.34 11.46 78.65 1.7038 Jorasanko 39.34 43.82 11.40 42.41 -3.2239 Kadamtola 29.58 35.73 20.79 41.98 17.4940 Krishnanagar 91.18 101.96 11.82 111.63 9.4841 Lal Bazar 96.43 117.03 21.36 116.71 -0.2742 Lyons Range 57.43 63.31 10.24 63.01 -0.4743 Malda 62.06 82.08 32.25 94.33 14.9344 Maniktala 31.68 34.47 8.80 36.61 6.2345 Medinipur 372.00 385.09 3.52 419.39 8.9146 Monoharkatra 30.91 33.47 8.30 36.67 9.5447 N. D. Sarani 46.34 50.85 9.73 52.45 3.1448 N. S. Road 33.07 39.54 19.56 46.67 18.0349 New Market 61.98 64.13 3.47 67.45 5.1850 Park Street 241.68 335.51 38.82 343.36 2.3451 Posta Bazar 79.60 89.33 12.22 85.21 -4.6152 Princep Street 62.54 73.14 16.95 65.92 -9.8853 Purulia 81.78 89.03 8.87 104.06 16.8854 Radhabazar 41.73 48.69 16.67 59.21 21.6055 Raiganj 28.58 46.27 61.90 57.26 23.7556 Rajakatra 41.80 49.40 18.19 52.83 6.9657 Salkia 58.69 65.90 12.28 65.49 -0.6358 Salt Lake 314.47 381.22 21.23 358.92 -5.8559 Sealdah 43.76 45.23 3.37 46.10 1.9260 Shibpore 174.12 202.56 16.33 227.75 12.4461 Shyam Bazar 31.59 35.63 12.78 41.44 16.3162 Siliguri 552.85 571.36 3.35 655.29 14.6963 Srirampur 107.65 153.70 42.78 174.20 13.3364 Strand Road 67.87 68.14 0.39 78.11 14.6365 Suri 96.52 100.89 4.53 98.41 -2.4666 Taltala 138.02 172.44 24.93 174.67 1.2967 Tamluk 231.29 217.31 -6.04 157.86 -27.3668 Ultadanga 147.82 94.50 -36.07 103.87 9.9269 Checkposts, Ranges 380.77 295.10 -22.50 373.64 26.61

& othersTotal 24142.64 26337.10 9.09 28181.32 7.00


Sl Charge / Division 2014-15 2015-16 % Growth 2016-17 % Growthno over previous over previous

year year

27


8 . (C) DISTRICT WISE COMPARATIVE COLLECTION OF SALES TAX, VAT & CST (Rs. in Crore)

S l District 2014-15 2015-16 % Growth 2016-17 % Growthno over previous over previous

year year1 Bankura 62.74 84.89 35.30 86.00 1.312 Bardhaman 1003.25 1085.97 8.24 1153.72 6.243 Birbhum 96.52 100.89 4.53 98.41 -2.464 Cooch Behar 63.78 104.94 64.54 113.23 7.905 Dakshin Dinajpur 7.63 16.30 113.69 20.70 26.976 Darjeeling 570.06 588.39 3.22 672.14 14.237 Hooghly 241.32 153.70 -36.31 174.20 13.338 Howrah 336.16 389.31 15.81 426.39 9.529 Jalpaiguri 39.12 54.86 40.24 65.30 19.03

10 Kolkata 19143.57 20999.62 9.70 22505.53 7.1711 Malda 62.06 82.08 32.25 94.33 14.9312 Purbo Medinipur 231.29 217.31 -6.04 157.86 -27.3613 Paschim Medinipur 372.00 385.09 3.52 419.39 8.9114 Murshidabad 94.54 150.81 59.52 160.90 6.6915 Nadia 91.18 101.96 11.82 111.63 9.4816 North 24 Parganas 763.86 851.51 11.47 821.67 -3.5017 Purulia 81.78 89.03 8.87 104.06 16.8818 South 24 Parganas 472.43 539.05 14.10 564.95 4.8119 Uttar Dinajpur 28.58 46.27 61.90 57.26 23.7520 Checkposts, Ranges etc 380.77 295.10 -22.50 373.64 26.61

TOTAL 24142.64 26337.10 9.09 28181.32 7.00


[Jurisdiction of certain charges like Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, and Darjeeling etc. are not always co-terminus withjurisdiction of the respective administrative and / or geographical districts. Therefore collection in certain chargesmentioned above is not exactly the same as collection in the Districts with identical names.]

8. (D) COMPARATIVE COLLECTION OF SALES TAX, VAT & CST, PROFESSION TAX, COALCESS, ENTRY TAX & PETROL/DIESEL CESS FOR LAST 10 YEARS:

Year Sales Tax, Profession Tax Coal cess Entry Tax Petrol, Diesel Total collectionVAT & CST cess

Collection Growth Collection Growth Collection Growth Collection Growth Collection Growth Collection Growth(Rs. Cr) rate (%) (Rs. Cr) rate (%) (Rs. Cr) rate (%) (Rs. Cr) rate (%) (Rs. Cr) rate (%) (Rs. Cr) rate (%)

2007-08 8092.59 13.82 295.07 11.41 735.77 10.63 0 0 263.51 21.47 9424.44 13.76

2008-09 8981.77 10.99 321.6 8.99 700.39 -4.81 0 0 298.84 13.41 10302.6 9.32

2009-10 10623.7 18.28 362.4 12.69 664.06 -5.19 0 0 320.62 7.29 11992.01 16.4

2010-11 13368.44 25.84 388.54 7.21 966.89 45.6 0 0 355.38 10.84 15110.78 26.01

2011-12 15979.06 19.53 426.68 9.82 1548.37 60.14 0 0 366.46 3.12 18367.33 21.55

2012-13 18541.96 16.04 447.4 4.86 1536.35 -0.78 1266.07 393.81 7.46 22185.59 20.79

2013-14 21852.83 17.86 463.85 3.68 1635.25 6.44 988.66 -21.91 389.17 -1.18 25329.76 14.17

2014-15 24142.64 10.48 463.85 0 1669.95 2.12 855.55 -13.46 393.02 0.99 27525.01 8.67

2015-16 26337.10 9.09 485.47 4.66 1725.68 3.34 837.69 -2.09 472.73 20.28 29858.67 8.48

2016-17 28181.32 7.00 509.09 4.87 1800.95 4.36 934.32 11.54 472.53 -0.04 31898.21 6.83

Total Collection figures for the years 2007-08 to 2013-14 include collections on account of Luxury Tax.

28


9. REGISTRATION

(A) Sales Tax Act:

* Number of Registered Dealers

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

(a) Opening Balance 259045 254384 267920

(b) New Registration Granted 16882 20297 21956

(c) Dealers Cancelled 22262 7596 15332

(d) Dealers Restored 719 835 1945

(e) Closing Balance 254384 267920 276489

(B) New Registration (Online):

2016-17

VAT CST Total

(a) No of NR applications filed 25034 13166 38200

(b) No of Registration Granted 21944 11016 32960

(c) No of Applications Rejected 2937 1908 4845

(C) Profession Tax Act:

Number of registered employers and enrolled persons under the Profession Tax Act, 1979

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

i) Number of Registered Employers 105593 106002 111074

ii) Number of Enrolled Persons 1707955 1712897 1859713

29


10. ASSESSMENT, APPEAL CASES

(A) ASSESSMENT CASES (ASSESSMENT YEAR WISE) – (VAT+CST)

Initiated during (year) 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

For Financial Year 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

(a) Total cases initiated during the year 86140 29113 22565 20419 31759

(b) Net Initiation 49148 25111 18519 18109 28768

(c) Demand Initiated 48284 25024 18484 18096 6756

(d) Demand amount (in Rs. Crore) 4598.76 2358.40 2003.44 1321.69 859.76

The figures have been compiled and submitted by NIC & DAW from central database. Figures include both VAT andCST assessment cases but exclude Audit Cases. Some initiation cases were dropped after initiation.* As a part of reducing cost of compliance, routine assessment has been replaced with risk based assessment only.

10 (B) APPEAL CASES:

Sales Tax Acts (VAT+CST):

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17


(b) Cases initiated during the year 9286 6673 6290

(c) Cases disposed of during the year 14686 9323 7319

(d) Cases pending at the end of the year 7502 4852 3823

30


11 (A) DISPOSAL OF VAT AUDIT CASES (ASSESSMENT YEAR WISE)

Assessment/Audit Year Cases initiated Demand Notice Generated Demand Amount(in Rs. crore)

2010-2011 N.A. 4606 2875.56

2011-2012 7556 7118 3308.68

2012-2013 5943 5783 1060.26

2013-2014 4527 2802 534.90

2014-2015 4703 1383 274.67

The figures have been compiled and submitted by NIC and DAW from central database. Figures include both VAT andCST audit cases. During the FY 2010-2011, there was manual system of generation of initiation notice and onlinegeneration of demand notice. For the period 2014-15, disposal of cases is still under process.

11 (B) REVISION & REVIEW CASES

Sales Tax Acts (Financial Year-wise) (VAT+CST):

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17


(b) Cases initiated during the year 903 560 885

(c) Cases disposed of during the year 557 620 724

(d) Cases pending at the end of the year 542 482 643

12. PROFESSION TAX ASSESSMENT CASES

Profession Tax Act (Financial Year-wise):

2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

(a) Opening Balance 6572 2346 2378 2447

(b) Cases initiated during the year 14847 12571 5325 44663

(c) Cases disposed of during the year 19073 12539 5256 44984

(d) Cases pending at the end of the year 2346 2378 2447 2126

31


13. COMPLIANCE TO BUDGET PROPOSALS OF 2016-17

Hon’ble Minister-in-charge, Finance Department, in his Budget Speech for 2016-17 has proposedseveral measures for the benefit of dealers like providing relief to salaried and wage earners in ProfessionTax, simplified benefit of Tax Deduction at Source (TDS), reduction in time limit for disposal of appealcases, extending Industrial Promotion Assistance Scheme and abolition of Settlement Commission.

To give effect to those proposals the following Govt. Notifications and/or circulars were issued foramendment of Acts & Rules and some procedural changes:-

Sl. Description Notification/ EffectiveNo. Circular No. & date date

1. Limit of exemption of Profession Tax for salariedpersons and wage earners has been raised from 682L dated 28.07.16 01.08.16Rs. 8,500/- to Rs. 10,000/-.

2. The State Government may reduce or waive theamount of interest payable by the person who makes DO 01.07.15the deduction or a contractee (being an officer ofGovernment). [sec. 40(2A)]

3. Time limit of disposal of appeal cases has been DO 01.08.16reduced by six months. [sec. 84(2)]

4. I P A scheme has been extended upto 31.03.2019 by 1070 –F.T. dated 01.04.16amending Resolution No. 483 –F.T. dated 31.03.2010. 01.08.16

5. Settlement Commission has been abolished by 682L dated 28.07.16 01.04.05omitting sections 8A, 8B, 8C and 8D.

14. BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Bureau of Investigation (BoI) is the apex investigating agency under the Directorate of CommercialTaxes, primarily engaged in probing tax evasion related cases and enforcing recovery thereof.

Set up by dint of an executive resolution of the Govt of West Bengal on 03.02.1970, Bureau ofInvestigation was given the statutory authority on 23.03.1974. Presently its constitution, powers andjurisdiction are governed by provisions of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003, WBST Act, 1994,WB P.T. Act, 1979 and has jurisdiction all over West Bengal.

However, with an eye to rationalize the entire anti-evasion operation so far as commercial taxes areconcerned, lately, substantial changes in the statute have been brought about regarding the existing structureof Bureau of investigation. It has been subdivided into three units viz Unit – I, Unit – II and Unit – III,spanning its jurisdiction across the entire State of West Bengal.

Sl no Name of Unit Circles covered

1 Bureau of Investigation, Unit -- 1 Zone A- to investigate transaction of Dealers underKolkata (South) , Chowringhee Circles

Zone B- to investigate transaction of Dealers underCorporate Division, , Dharmatala Circles

Zone C- to investigate transaction of Dealers underBurrabazar and Behala Circles

32


2 Bureau of Investigation, Unit – 2 Howrah Zone- to investigate transaction of Dealersunder Howrah, Bally Circles

Asansol Zone I & II- to investigate transaction ofDealers under Asansol Circle

Durgapore Zone- to investigate transaction of Dealersunder Durgapur Circle

Kharagpur Zone- to investigate transaction of Dealersunder Medinipur Circle

3 Bureau of Investigation, Unit -- 3 Salt Lake Zone- to investigate transaction of Dealersunder Kolkata (North ), 24-parganas Circles

Siliguri Zone I & II- to investigate transaction of Dealersunder Siliguri Circle

Alipurduar Zone- to investigate transaction of Dealersunder Jalpaiguri Circle

Maldah Zone- to investigate transaction of Dealers underRaiganj Circle

Rampurhat Zone- to investigate transaction of Dealersunder Baharampur Circle

Bureau of Investigation, in its new incarnation would extend from its erstwhile role on monitoringtransactions to subsume all anti-evasion activity i.e. monitoring movement of goods. Thus, Check posts,Ranges and Central Section, too, have been brought under the fold of Bureau of Investigation, in theirrespective spatial jurisdiction.

The Bureau of Investigation investigates cases where there is allegation/suspicion of evasion oftaxes primarily under the VAT Act’03, CST Act’56 and WBST Act’94. Over the years, Bureau of Investigationhas reinforced the search and seizure operations to track down the evaders and realize the evaded tax.There had been positive impact on the operations undertaken by BoI.

In tracking cases of evasion, Bureau of Investigation relies mainly on internal and external sourcesof information. The former includes MIS reports generated by the in-house Information Systems Division(ISD) and newly created Data Analysis Wing (DAW), keeping an eye on cases relating to inter-alia,suppression of turnover, improper tax rates, false claim of input tax credit and of tax exemptions. Referredcases from various wings of the Directorate are also examined. On the external front, BoI seeks informationfrom other Govt agencies working on similar fields, related departments of other States and also onprivate secret information from the market. Sometimes the officers are to visit other state-sales tax authoritiesfor conducting investigation. Enquiries are conducted at the places and sites where there are probabilitiesof availabilities of incriminating documents and/or data that might lead to seizure of both books of accountsand records and also the goods (that are suspected to have been procured in violation of Law). Thoroughinvestigation follows after that. Investigation findings are reported back to the concerned assessing officers.

Bureau of Investigation generally screens the cases on the basis of criticality and the estimatedquantum involved and pursues them, not only to unearth evasion but enforce recovery of the due butunpaid taxes. From big corporate houses (e.g. claiming undue exemptions) to racketeers operatingclandestinely in the market to defraud tax, a good number of them have been successfully tracked downby the Bureau of Investigation and substantial part of the due taxes were realized. In the process, BoI hascarried out with unfailing regularity, cases of prosecution with the respective Police authority, e.g.Enforcement Branch of Kolkata Police, against evaders with criminal intent.

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Achievements of Bureau of Investigation (Unit I)

This unit of Bureau of Investigation upon information or on its own motion or when the StateGovernment or the Commissioner so directs, carries out investigation or holds inquiry into any case ofalleged or suspected evasion of tax under the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994, the West Bengal ValueAdded Tax Act, 2003, the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 and the rules made there under as well as malpracticesconnected to the case.

After receiving information from any source like secret informers, Regional Economic IntelligenceCommittee (REIC), Data Analysis Wing (DAW) and other sources, the officers of Bureau of investigation,Unit-1 process it thoroughly and make necessary primary survey or examination before getting into theinvestigation process. For the purpose of investigation the officers are authorised to search a dealer’sregistered place of business and other places as well. The officers are also authorised to seize incriminatingrecords and documents and the goods imported into the state in violation of the statutory provisions. Theinvestigating officers are empowered to issue notice to the dealers, banks, railway, clearing agents, transporterfor examination and explanation of documents.

After the completion of investigation, evaded tax is quantified and reports are sent to theCommissioner, Commercial Taxes and the respective assessing authority of the dealer. If huge evasion oftax is detected and quantified and if the circumstance so demands, complaint against the dealer is lodgedbefore the police authorities.

The cases which this unit of Bureau deals with are usually of the following nature:

1. Concealment of purchases, sales and contractual transfer price

2. False claim of Input Tax Credit

3. False claim of tax exemption on sales

4. False claim of concessional rate of tax on sales

5. Payment of tax at lower rate

This unit of Bureau is also engaged in intercepting and detaining the vehicles carrying goodstransported in violation of the statutory provisions. The officers are authorised to search the suspectedvehicles, seize such goods and impose penalty as per the provisions of law.

Sl No. Activities of BI -I 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

Search and seizures

1 No. of raids conducted 436 472 475 637 432 396

2 No. of seizures made 147 129 130 351 101 727

3 No. of investigation completed 97 163 189 225 205 113

4 Tax Collection (Rs. in crore) 76.31 91.07 134.34 211.36 79.24 74.88

5 No. of FIR made 19 15 20 16 11 1

* In addition to the above, 20 number of dealers have been deselected from availing online facility. Total evasion

detected out of these 20 deselected dealers = 33.63 Crores.

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Achievement of Bureau of Investigation (Unit II):

Sl No. Activities of BI -II 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

Search and seizures

1 No. of raids conducted 07 29 345 529 476 393

2 No. of seizures made 07 29 235 311 349 262

3 No. of investigation completed 19 36 150 324 346 272

4 Total amount realized 0.10 0.81 27.49 43.08 90.08 94.85

5 Total no. of seizures made at 4395 6283 6184 4938 3688 5330 range and checkposts

6 Total Collection (Rs. in crore)** 32.21 34.89 82.49 115.05 32.30 146.73

7 No. of FIR made -- -- 03 05 0 3

**Amounts includes collection made by Enforcement Wing, Ranges & Checkposts, CS (Asansol) In Sl no 1 to 5 figures for 2011-12 to 2012-13 are CS (Asansol) figures

Achievement of Bureau of Investigation (Unit-III)

Bureau of Investigation, Unit- III this year has attained satisfactory achievement. Officers of B.I- IIIwere engaged tirelessly to collect revenue from different sources. In fact its performance was outstandingin the fields, like Bar-cum Restaurant, Work Contractors, Spices, Motor Vehicle, Plastic coated fabric,Iron & Steel, Transporters etc. Moreover this unit has all been successful in busting some rackets ofunscrupulous person/ dealer who a) were involved in accepting and/or issuing Tax invoices withoutentering into actual transactions and b) thereby enabled some dealers to lower their liabilities of net Taxliabilities by falsely claiming input tax credits. No. of seizures in comparison with previous year was lessowing to various reasons such as demonetization effect etc.

It is also deserves mentioning that the team of B.I., Unit- III has conducted considerable number ofsearch & seizure operation in the comparatively untouched suburbs of districts of Nadia, North 24 Parganas,Murshidabad, Siliguri, etc. besides Kolkata.

Barrackpur Range, Rampurhat Range, Raiganj Range, Siliguri Range, Alipurduar Range and the officesunder Malda Unit in addition to their regular goods related preventive activities, have also conductedcertain enquiries leading to some praiseworthy seizure of books of accounts and documents leading torealization of significant amount of evaded tax. Siliguri Unit of B.I.- III extensively made parallel outdoorenquiries and unearthed significant evasion of tax.

Performance of B.I.- III during the financial year 2016-2017 and previous years is shown in a tabularform:

Sl No. Activities of BI -III 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-171 No. of raids conducted 254 270 437 778 801 5452 No. of seizures made 122 105 371 593 602 2713 No. of investigation completed 179 219 231 591 602 2594 Amount of Tax evasion detected 86.36 107.59 786.00 982.00 941.75 687.76

(Rs. in crore)5 Total realized on suppressed 13.45 23.46 107.89 136.33 254.05 292.52*

turnover (Rs. in crore)

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6 Total no. of seizures made at 3537 5075 5652 5357 5130 3382range and checkposts

7 Tax Collection (Rs. in crore)* 45.71 65.08 193.38 204.42 26.01 16.37**

8 No. of FIR made -- -- 10 11 0

* This amount includes collection from defaulters specially during the end of financial year.** Amount includes collection made by Ranges, Checkposts, C.S. (Kolkata) and C.S. (siliguri)

15. CENTRAL REGISTRATION UNIT

The Central Registration Unit started functioning from 1st August 2011 with the aim to ensurespeedy and hassle-free registration to the dealer under VAT and CST Act. This is a unique unit of thisDirectorate as no physical appearance on the part of the applicant is required here and registration isgranted without going through the process of hearing. The dealer applies for registration on-line andsubmits hardcopy of the application along with authenticated documents. After scrutiny of the applicationand documents and obtaining security registration is granted. If any communication is required, it is donethrough e-mail. No physical appearance is solicited.

With effect from 15th March 2016 `One Day Registration’ was implemented for all dealers. Now,Registration is granted within next working day of furnishing hard copy of completed application alongwith necessary documents including application fees and security payment details, if the applicationalong with the documents submitted is found in order.

At present, Central Registration Unit has the jurisdiction over the following Circles/Charges scatteredin Beliaghata, Salt lake, Howrah and Behala buildings:

Circles Charges under jurisdiction of CRU

Kolkata North All Charges

Kolkata South All Charges

Chowringhee All Charges

Dharmatala All Charges

Burrabazar All Charges

24 Parganas All Charges except Barasat & Barrackpore

Behala All Charges except Baruipur & Diamond Harbour

Howrah All Charges

Bally All Charges except Srirampur

Central Registration Unit : Data for 2016-2017

VAT CST TOTAL

(a) No. of NR applications filed 9980 7616 17596

(b) No. of Registration Granted 7711 5935 13646

(c) No. of Application Rejected 2267 1654 3921

Sl No. Activities of BI -III 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

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16. CENTRAL AUDIT UNIT

In order to strengthen the audit of accounts referred to section 43 of the WBVAT Act, 2003, CentralAudit Unit (CAU) was formed with effect from 01.06.2010. The CAU has started functioning from01.07.2010 with its two wings; one at Sales Tax Building, Beliaghata and the other at Salt Lake Building.

Audit in the context of section 43 of the VAT Act relates not only to the examination of the accounts,registers and documents maintained or kept by the dealer to verify whether the books of accountsmaintained give true state of affairs of business but also to the examination of the correctness of returnsfurnished and the admissibility of various claims for the relevant period and most significantly it alsospecifically involves quantification of tax, interest or late fee payable by the dealer.

It is to be noted here that necessary amendments in the statutory provisions were made - to enablethe audit report to be treated as deemed assessment order after expiry of stipulated period - just to stop therepetition of work as envisaged and stressed upon by the Hon'ble Finance Minister, Govt. of West Bengal,while delivering his budget speech for the financial year 2012-13. In chapter 3.11 of the heading of'Fundamental Reforms of the Tax Administration as enumerated in 'Annual Financial Statement for theFinancial Year 2012-13', he commented : "I now propose to take the reform further to the effect thatwhere the audit report is not accepted by the dealer, no further assessment will be initiated. The auditreport, on expiry of the prescribed time, shall automatically become a notice of demand. The proposedamendment will reduce the time for dealers by at least 12 months."

The Central Audit Unit will have the following responsibilities:

I. Develop a dynamic Risk Analysis module on the basis of which the dealers are to be selectedfor audit,

II. Help the Commissioner in the selection procedure of the dealers for audit,

III. Improve the existing Audit Manual wherever it is felt necessary,

IV. Impart training to audit officers of Central Audit Unit and audit officers of different Charge andCircle,

V. Conduct audit of dealers assign to it by the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, W.B.,

VI. Planning and monitoring of audit work,

VII. E-governance in audit system,

VIII. Developing an MIS for audit reporting,

IX. To facilitate the production of books of accounts as well as the examination of records, theaudit proceedings of the dealer under Corporate Divisions are being conducted now at dealer's“place of business” in terms of provisions under section 66 of the said Act read with rule94(2)(b) of WBVAT Rules, 2005 for the purpose of audit u/s 43 of the said Act,

X. Any other work connected with audit under the WBVAT Act, 2003 as may be assigned by theCommissioner of Commercial taxes, West Bengal.

Officers posted in the Central Audit Unit shall have jurisdiction over the whole of the State of WestBengal exercising the power of that of officers posted in Central Section in terms of notification issued forthis purpose.

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The Officers of CAU conducted Audit u/s 43 as follows:

Audit period Numbers of Total numbers of dealers Total numbers of dealersAudit Officers against whom audit was against whom audit has been

conducted/to be conducted completed.

2009-10 20 491 491

2010-11 20 654 654

2011-12 17 467 467

2012-13 16 537 537

2013-14 20 580 580

2014-15 25 (Proposed) 625 Under process. To be completed within 18.07.2017.

ACTOs have also been provided to the CAU for making verification of transactions of purchase andsale and checking other relevant documents and also assist the audit officers of the unit in their day-to-daywork as and when required.

The unit in the course of audit has given emphasis on cross-verification of purchase, sale, CTP, stocktransfer, mode of movement of goods, payment etc. to ascertain the admissibility of claim of ITC and otherclaims made by the Auditee in the period under audit. These exercises of verification of different transactionshave yielded good result for revenue. Audit officers are also sending draft audit report in respect of findingsmade upon audit to the Auditee before drawing final audit report. As a result in most of the cases theAuditees are depositing the admitted due tax.

17. INTERSTATE VERIFICATION CELL (H.Q.)

The Interstate verification Cell started functioning on and from 1st October, 2004 with an object,initially, to verify the genuineness of claims of tax reduction/exemption against declaration forms connectedwith interstate transaction. Since then, the Cell has been receiving considerable number of requisitions forverification of such claims from different Assessing Authorities and Appellate Authorities of this Directorateincluding Large Tax Payers 'Unit (LTU) as well as BOI-I, BOI-II, BOI-III, IIU.

The Cell has also been receiving requisitions from different States and Union Territories of India forverification of authenticity of claims of tax reduction/exemption resulted from purported transactionseffected from respective States and Union Territories with the dealers in West Bengal against variousdeclaration forms like “C”, “F”, “H”,”E1”, “E2”etc. It is worth mentioning that many false transactions arebeing detected in regular course resulting in disallowance false claims connected with interstate transactions.

Presently, the issue and utilisation of the declaration forms under the CST Act are supposed to begetting cross-verified through internet through TINXSYS; but expected progress cannot be achieved due todelay in feeding the relevant data by the states concerned.

In course of time, however, to adapt with the need of situation this Cell has extended its verificationactivities in some selected fields of interstate transactions too, including verification of authenticity of taxdeposits under the Government Account. Those are:

(a) Verification of cases referred by different border check posts as regards to existence ofunscrupulous dealers and purported claim of tax/penalty deposits made by such dealers.

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(b) Supervision and monitoring of tax collection on readymade garments sold in bulk byunregistered dealers at Howrah Hat and Metiaburuz Hat. Tax collection on readymade garmentsfor the period of 2016-2017 has reached Rs.22.23 crores.

(c) Verification of bank challans referred by Check Posts & Ranges all over West Bengal andsending of report of verification through e-mail.

(d) Analysis and monitoring e-commerce was done extensively.

Its performance in its different field of activities during the year 2016-17 is placed below.

Performance during the year - 2016-17

Nature of work Performance during the year Outcome during the period

(a) Verification of transactions Verification in respect of Fake transactions in twoReferred by Charge Office, 15(fifteen) Cases completed different cases detected toCD & CS the tune of Rs. 12,33,47,276/-.

(b) Verification of transactions Verification in respect of 692 No Fake transaction detected.referred by difference (six hundred ninety twoStates & Union Territories Cases completed.

(c) Verification of cases referred Bank Challans were verified No case of false deposit by border Check posts and referred to Border Check

Posts/Range Offices

(d) Monitoring of tax collection 1487 Challan Books (each of Tax to the tune of Rs.22.23on readymade garments 100 Challans) were issued crore collected.from Howrah Hat andMetiabruz Hat

(e) Other works related to 19 19Interstate transactions

ANALYSIS AND MONITORING OF E-COMMERCE

E-Commerce works include Courier company verification, communication with e-Portals, analyzingdata of e-Commerce sales.

02 courier companies had taken courier enrolment during the period from 01.04.2016 to 31.07.2016.Spot verification, document verification and other works before getting courier enrolment number weredone on these occasions. However, this work has been stopped with effect from 1st Day of August, 2016vide Notification No. 1559 - F.T. dated. 24.10.2016, published on 26.10.2016.

Online sales details of dealers of West Bengal through top 04 e_Portals (amazon.in, snapdeal.com,eBay.in and flipkart.com) up-to August 2016 are being verified, because, among the biggest e_Portalsviz. Flipkart and Amazon has gone to Honourable High Court on multiple occasions with various grievances.Regarding these matters timely advices were given and knowledge sharing was done with Law Section ofthis Directorate. Also, it is to be noted that Snapdeal and eBay could not provide data as per the prescribedformat citing the reason that they are open market places and are unable to provide the Registrationnumbers and other details of each seller.

Verification includes the criteria's such as more values of online sales than submitted return or nilreturn or no return filed, CST sale by un-registered dealers or CV dealers, top sellers of each portals etc.

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This verification work is done after collecting sales details from different e_Portals, mismatches werescrutinized with CDT data. Dealers' online sales details were then informed to respective Charges fortaking necessary action whose mismatches were found.

During verification, sales data of 10 dealers ware verified, out of which 03 registered dealers paidtotal Rs. 6,45,000/- which were collected by imposing tax and penalty in connection with tax evasion.

Future prospect of online sales is very wide as it is getting popularity in a geometric shape. So focuson future e-commerce is need of the hour, hence proposal for an E-Commerce Cell was placed beforeSpecial Commissioner of Commercial Taxes-1/West Bengal.

18. SPECIAL CELL

In order to boost up industrial growth in the State, the Govt. of West Bengal announced WestBengal Incentive Scheme, 1993 and West Bengal Incentive Scheme, 1999. The incentives under the schemesinclude inter alia remission and deferment of sales tax subject to the fulfilment of certain prescribedconditions. Accordingly, provisions have been made for remission and deferment of sales tax. The eligibleindustrial unit which is obviously a unit of registered dealer is required to obtain an Eligibility Certificate(E. C.) from the Directorate of Commercial Taxes to avail of the tax relief mentioned above.

Moreover, to generate employment and to boost up entrepreneurs in the state, the Govt. of WestBengal announced benefit in terms of tax holiday for newly set up small scale industries. Accordingly E. C.was issued to the dealers from this Directorate so that the new entrepreneurs can stand in the stiffcompetition. With effect from 01-01-2000, all these benefits were withdrawn by making an amendment inthe Sales Tax Act. But the existing industrial units which were allowed the benefits before 01-01-2000 willcontinue to enjoy it until the eligibility terminates.

Now under the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, a registered dealer who had been enjoying taxholiday, remission and deferment under the W. B. Sales Tax Act, 1994 upto 31-03-2015 may be allowedtax holiday, remission and deferment under the VAT Act for the balance period or balance eligible amountsubject to certain conditions.

One joint Commissioner and one Deputy Commissioner of Special Cell are authorized to issue E. C.under VAT Act and subsequent renewal thereof to eligible dealers of West Bengal. One Senior JointCommissioner is entrusted upon for disposal of revision cases in the Cell. There is one Addl. Commissioner,Commercial Taxes in the Cell for administrative purpose and in the capacity of revisional authority inrespect of revision cases pertaining to E. C. The Cell is headed by the Special Commissioner of CommercialTaxes, West Bengal and it is located at 14, Beliaghata Road, Kolkata -15.

During the FY 2016-17, 27 cases have been renewed by the Cell.

19. INDUSTRIAL PROMOTION ASSISTANCE CELL

The IPA Cell in the Commercial Tax Directorate came into being when the Government decided towind up the Policy Planning Unit of the Finance Dept. which used to operate out from the Headquartersof the CTD at Beliaghata.

The erstwhile PPU was disbanded by the Government vide Notification No. 394FT/01/1E-31/IIst(pt) dated 13.03.2015 and all its assigned roles & functions were entrusted with the new IPA Cell whichcommenced operations on & from the date the PPU ceased to exist.

The creation of the IPA Cell has the approval & sanction of the Government vide Notification No.1324 F.T. dated 31.07.2015.

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Presently the IPA Cell functions as an integral unit under the Office of the Commissioner, CommercialTaxes, West Bengal and functions as a nodal authority for processing of all Incentive & Industrial PromotionAssistance Schemes of the Government.

Appointment of Competent Authority

The Government appoints & authorizes Officers of the CTD to function as competent Officers of theFinance Department for administration of the various Incentive Schemes.

Presently, Shri Sajal Barui, Special commissioner, Commercial Taxes and Shri Prabal De, AdditionalCommissioner, Commercial Taxes have been appointed as Ex-Officio Special Secretary & Joint Secretary& DDO respectively, for discharging of all the statutory duties involving approval of the Applications filedunder the WBIPA Scheme 2010 and validity verification of the Applications filed under the WBIS Schemes.

The Joint Secretary designate also acts as a DDO for disbursal of funds to the eligible MSMEmanufacturing units who have filed Applications under WBIPA 2010.

The work force at IPA Cell as on date is as follows:

Special Secretary: 1

Joint Secretary & DDO: 1

Senior Joint Commissioner: 1

Commercial Tax Officer: 2

Assistant Commercial Tax Officer: 3

Lower Division Clerk: 2

Work Area of IPA Cell:

The IPA Cell processes all Applications for Industry Incentives filed under the WBIPA 2010, &WBIS 2000, 2004, 2008, 2013 Schemes of the Finance and Commerce & Industry Dept. Applications forTourism incentives under the Schemes of the Tourism Dept. are also processed.

Validity of the Application & veracity of the data furnished in the Incentive Applications are checked& verified through due diligence exercise initiated by the Cell.

The IPA Cell regularly interacts with the Assessing Officers in the process of cross-verifying data andpreparation of Compliance Reports. The Cell also continuously liaisons with the WBIDC, DIC, Tourism,C&I & Finance Depts. for expeditious disposal of Applications filed by the Industry.

The IPA Cell prepares the draft of the Suitability Certificates issued by the CCT/ W.B.

The IPA Cell also functions as the drawing & disbursal authority of IPA funds on behalf of theFinance Dept. Act wise apportionment of Incentive funds by way of refund of a certain proportion ofannual tax paid is also within the purview of the IPA Cell.

The IPA Cell also prepares MIS Reports as & when required by the Government for policy planning.Under the GST system, it is felt that the IPA Cell would have a more decisive role to play as all industrialincentives/ refunds have to be financed through State Budgetary Resources.

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ROLE OF IPA CELL UNDER THE VARIOUS SCHEMES:

NAME OF THE INCENTIVE ROLE OF IPA CELL ASSIGNEDINCENTIVE/ SANCTIONING AUTHORITYASSISTANCE SCHEMES DEPARTMENT OF GOWB

WBIPA 2010 FINANCE DEPT. VERIFICATION, APPROVAL, CTO, Sr.JCCT,SANCTIONING & Addl. CCT / J.SALLOTMENT Spl. CCT/ S.S

WBIS 2000 COMMERCE & VALIDATION Joint Secretary,INDUSTRY DEPT. CHECKS, APPROVAL Special

Secretary

WBIS 2004 do do

WBIS 2008 do do

WBIS 2013 do do

WBTD TOURISM DEPT. do do

DISBURSEMENT UNDER WBIPA 2010 FOR SSI, MSME MANUFACTURING UNITS

FINANCIAL YEAR NO. OF CASES (APPLICANT AMOUNT DISBURSED (RS.) ELIGIBLE DEALERS

2016-17 789 39.99

2015-16 2466 91.19

2014-15 1685 59.99

2013-14 1745 49.99

2012-13 1359 39.99

TOTAL 8044 281.15

NOTE:

a) Incentives disbursal to manufacturers of bituminous paints could not be made due to theirineligibility under the WBIPA 2010 Scheme consequent to the Supreme Court judgement.

DISBURSEMENT UNDER THE WBIS, WBSSIS (MEGA- MANUFACTURING PROJECTS &TOURISM SCHEMES OF 2000, 2004, 2008, 2013 and WBIS 2008 (only for Tourism Industry)

FINANCIAL YEAR AMOUNT DISBURSED(Rs. In crores)

2016-17 250.05

2015-16 222.61

2014-15 472.58

2013-14 0.22

2012-13 64.81

TOTAL 1010.27 crores

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The IPA Cell also replies to various queries of C & I Dept. referred to the Directorate on matters ofproduction, as specified in theRegistration Certificate& Eligibility Certificate issued by DI and C&I,quantumof VAT Payments, eligibility & computation of ITC allowance etc.

The IPA Cell functions as a single-window help desk to all the prospective applicants & beneficiariesof the Government Industrial& Tourism Incentive Schemes and plays an important role in theimplementation of the Government's policy towards ease of doing business in West Bengal.

20. INTERNAL AUDIT WING

Internal audit Wing of the Directorate of Commercial Taxes is a permanent in house mechanism forscrutinizing the assessments of Sales Tax/Vat cases and detecting irregularities, if any. This wing alsochecks the records and registers of different offices under this Directorate to ascertain whether internalcontrol system as envisaged in the Acts and Rules made thereunder are being followed properly. It alsotakes follow-up action on the observations made by the office of the Accountant General, West Bengal,and helps the charges/circles to furnish proper reply to the IR Paras, Draft Paras and CAG Paras as the casemay be.

Audit of assessed cases for the following charges were conducted during 2016-17:

1. Beadon Street Charge

2. Burtolla Charge

3. Postabazar Charge

4. Cossipore Charge

5. Ultadanga Charge

6. Jorabagan Charge.

There were some irregularities in the files detected by the officers of IAW, like a) Incorrectdetermination of sales, b) Irregular exemption, c) Non levy as well as short levy of interest and penalty andinterest, d) Improper maintenance as well as non maintenance of Books of Accounts as per statute etc. Therespective charges were informed about these for necessary action.

Bilateral meetings were held three times during the relevant period between the officers of differentcharges of the Directorate and the Office of the Deputy Accountant General (RSA/WB) for settlement oflong pending IR Paras on the strength of replies received from charges and through detailed discussionbased on law points as per statute. The internal Audit Wing arranged the bilateral meeting and activelycoordinated them.

Status of different Paras raised and settled during the year 2016-17 in comparison with the previousyear are stated below:

Outstanding Outstanding Raised Raised Dropped Dropped Out Outupto March upto March During During During During Standing Standing

2015 2016 2015-16 2016-17 2015-16 2016-17 On March On March2016 2017

IR 245 255 44 43 34 40 255 258

Paras 2180 2274 697 646 603 755 2274 2165

Internal Audit Wing also performs the job for preparing the statement of replies for Public AccountsCommittee's meeting for presenting the same before the State Assembly.

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21. CERTIFICATE ORGANISATION

Certificate Organisation, Salt Lake has jurisdiction over three districts namely Kolkata, 24 parganasNorth & South. There are 12(twelve) sanctioned Courts of which only 4(Four) have been now functioning.The Courts are presided over by TRO/CO. TRO/CO are assisted in the recovery process by Nazirs andprocess servers. At present there are no Nazirs to assist the Court in the recovery process.

On receipt of certificate cases from Requiring Officers of the respective charges, proceedings areinitiated by issuing notices to the certificate debtors. The general modes of Recovery are usually bankattachments, attachment of immovable and movable properties, body-warrant etc. Recovery Proceedingscontinues till the certificate demand is settled.

Since the last financial year 2014-15 a massive effort had been taken to introduce e-governance atcertificate organisation, Salt Lake for better administration and keeping all records digitally. The entirerecovery proceedings under VAT Act has been brought into Tax Recovery Module developed by NIC.The TROs have been performing through TRO Module developed by NIC.

Performance of the Certificate Organisation according to TRO-Module developed by NIC.

PENDING FILES TOTAL FINAL PENDING AMOUNT

AT THE ALLOTTED ALLOTTED ORDER AT THE REALISED

BEGINING DURING PASSED END OF NUMBER NUMBER IN THE

OF THE THE THE OF OF PERIOD

PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD CASES ACTION (Lakhs)

8259 877 9136 105 9031 2306 7785 876.19

ACTION TAKEN DURING THE PERIOD

VATCP GENERATION ORDER SHEET GENERATION

VATCP - 1 VATCP - 2 VATCP - 10 TOTAL PENDING INTERIM FINAL TOTAL

1704 217 1420 3341 582 3753 105 4440

22. COLLECTION CELL (Challan/Payment Verification Wing)

Collection Cell collects monthly collection figure comprising Value Added Taxes, West BengalSales Taxes, Central Sales Taxes, Profession Taxes, Entry Taxes, Primary Education as well as RuralEmployment Cess on Coal and Cess on Petrol-Diesel from the Directorate of Treasuries. The monthlycollection is sent to the Director (State Tax), Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Govt. of India,New Delhi and to the Empowered Committee, Delhi and also to other Govt. authorities of the stateincluding Principal Secretary & Finance Secretary of Finance (Revenue) Department in prescribed pro-forma.

Collection Cell also collects yearly certificate of collection of tax as booked in the accounts of thePrincipal Accounts General (A&E), West Bengal after reconciliation the same from collection figures receivedfrom the Director of Treasury & Accounts from time to time which is required to prepare CST compensationclaim.

ACTION TAKEN DURINGTHE PERIOD

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Collection Cell also preserves and maintains Bank Scrolls in respect of tax payment in the bank tohelp assessing authorities in determining actual payment from any dealer on assessment and also suppliescollection data as and when required for administrative purpose.

23. HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT CELL

The Human Resource Development Cell of this Directorate has been successfully carrying on variousTraining Programme for all the employees up to the grass root level. The thrust of the training programmeis generally placed on the Induction Level Training of CTOs and ACTOs & various need based courses foroverall qualitative improvement of work of this organization. Side by side the Cell also carries on In-service Training Programme of employees down to the level of Lower Division Clerks like SkillDevelopment Training Courses, Training on RTI Act, Workshop on Service Book, Basic Computer Training,and Computer Training on Tally etc. throughout the year. Each Training Programme includes extensivediscussions on statutes through Workshops, Case Studies and Interactive Sessions. In certain cases, greatemphasis is laid on communication skill, Management Training programme like Group Problem Solving,Team Building etc.

In order to achieve the benchmark in good governance and keeping with the demand of e-services,the Cell has conducted several ComputerTraining Programme for all Cadres of this Directorate.

We have at present a very rich pool of Trained Faculties who are also the Resource Personnel ofDepartment of Personnel & Training, Govt. of India.

At present, the Cell is administered by 01(one) Additional Commissioner, 01(one) Sr. JCCT, 01(one)JCCT, 01(one) CTO, 02(two) ACTOs, one H.A. and one Gr. D staff.

The performance of the HRD Cell for the year 2016-17 may be summed up as under:

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INDUCTION TRAINING IN THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2016-17

SL NO. TYPE OF TRAINING NUMBER OF TOTAL HOURSPARTICIPANTS (For Each Participant)

1 INDUCTION TRAINING FOR ACTOS 151 225

2 INDUCTION TRAINING FOR CTOS 78 235

TOTAL 229 460

IN- SERVICE TRAINING IN THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2016-17

SL NO. TYPE OF TRAINING NUMBER OF TOTAL HOURSPARTICIPANTS (For Each Participant)

1. WORKSHOP ON SERVICE BOOK 73 18

2. TRAINING ON PROVISIONS OF VAT LAW 8 15FOR A.I.TAX OFFICIALS

3. TRAINING ON PROVISIONS OF VAT LAW 9 10FOR IRS PROBATIONERS

4. MASTER TRAINER DEVELOPMENT AT 9 30ADMINISTRATIVE TRAINING INSTITUTE(ATI) FOR MODEL GST LAW (LEVEL-II)

5. TRAINERS DEVELOPMENT AT ATI FOR 49 30MODEL GST LAW (LEVEL-III)

6. IN-HOUSE CAPACITY BUILDING TRAINING 40 18ON MODEL GST LAW

7. MASTER TRAINERS’ TRAINING AT INFOSYS, 49 24CHENNAI ON GST NETWORK PORTAL(CONDUCTED BY GSTN & INFOSYS &CO-ORDINATED BY HRD CELL)

8. TRAINING ON E-WASTE MANAGEMENT 90 18FOR COMMERCIAL TAX DIRECTORATE ANDA. I. TAX DIRECTORATE OFFICIALS

9. TRAINING WORKSHOP ON GST & PUBLICFINANCE AT CENTRE FOR SOCIAL 10 18SCIENCES, PATULI

10. TRAINING ON CYBER SECURITY AND 6 18CYBER LAW AT NIT, DURGAPUR

343 199

SL. TYPE OF TRAINING TRAINING NUMBER OF TOTAL HOURSNO. CENTRE PARTICIPANTS (For Each

Participant)

1 CERTIFICATE COURSE ON TALLY HRD CELL 21 80

2 WEB PAGE DESIGN HRD CELL 13 40

3 PL/SQL NIELIT CAMPUS, 14 40JADAVPUR

48 160

46


COMPUTER TRAINING IN THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2016-2017

FOLLOWING TRAINING PROGRAMMES ON COMPUTER COURSES ARE CONDUCTED INASSOCIATION WITH NIELIT, JADAVPUR AND CO-ORDINATED BY HRD CELL

The year 2016-17 has been a very hectic & fruitful year for HRD Cell. Apart from conducting &organising the said Training Course, the Cell has also coordinated the following programme with

Infrastructural & Faculty support from its Pool.

a. Training Programmes on Model GST Law of State Government and Central Government officerscommenced from 26.10.2016 and it was jointly organised by HRD Cell, Directorate of CommercialTaxes and NACEN, Kolkata. Total 2200 officers from the Directorate of Commercial Taxes andAgriculture Income Tax participated in the Training. Training programmes were held at differentdistricts and six centres, including two at the Directorate of Commercial taxes. Programme onBasics of Model GST Law for Clerical Staff were held during March'17 at 3 Zones and also inKolkata. Number of participants attended this programme were 750 (approx) including A. I. TaxClerical Staff.

b. Interactive sessions on recent amendments under VAT Act and IMFL, SOD and Migration fromVAT to GST were held in Kolkata (Beliaghata, Salt Lake, Howrah, Behala) and five other districts(Siliguri, Durgapur, Berhampur, Balurghat and Midnapur). Participants were officers from Directorateof Commercial Taxes, Members of BAR Association and Stake Holders.

c. One-day Workshop on Provisions of Service Tax was organised with faculty support from DELOITTE,at Conference Hall, Sales Tax Building, Beliaghata.

d. Test on Provisions of Model GST Law for GSTN Master Trainers was held on 31st January. It wasco- conducted by DELOITTE at HRD Seminar Room.

e. HRD Cell has opened up a wing in North Bengal where Training is being carried on full-fledged.Both In-Service and Induction Level Training, Interactive Sessions with the Stake Holders are beingregularly organised.

f. HRD now has a rich pool of fifty (50) GST Master Trainers and forty-nine (49) GSTN Master Traineralong with its regular pools & extends its faculty support to the premium Institutes of the country.

g. Professional Training Course for newly recruited CTO's after Induction Training and Joint LevelInduction were organised at ATI, Kolkata.

h. A Seminar on Works Contract and Migration was held at Midnapur Film Society Hall organised byHRD Cell. Participants were Officers from Midnapur and Tamluk and Tax Practitioners and WorksContractors of Midnapur District.

i. HRD Cell has also successfully coordinated and organized tailor-made and customized TrainingCourses for its officials with ATI, NACEN. The course contents were on Cyber Fraud & Crime, IPC& CrPC, Money Laundering Act, Service Tax and the provisions of G. S. T. Act.

j. In the coming years, our vision is to organize more number of need-based In-Service, SkillDevelopment & Computer Training Courses down to the grass root level in addition to the regularInduction Level Training Courses of CTOs & ACTOs. More Sessions on Management and BehaviouralTopics, Adoption and Implementation of newer techniques of training like Case Study, GroupDiscussions, Workshop, and Interactive Sessions etc. are in our agenda.

k. We strive for being a "Centre of Excellence" in the field of Training in future with a vision of'Training for All' for the employees of the Directorate.

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24. SALES TAX DEDUCTED AT SOURCE (S.T.D.S.) CELL

STDS Cell is entrusted with the task of monitoring:-

(a) Sales Tax deducted at source (STDS) which is to be deducted by both Government and Non-Government Contractees, from payment made to the works contractors for execution of workscontract within West Bengal, and,

(b) Tax Collection at Source (TCS) which is to be deducted by Government and Local bodies frompayment made to Suppliers for supply of taxable goods in West Bengal.

The rate of deduction for both STDS and TCS are same i.e. 3% from payment made to registeredContractors or Suppliers who furnish Return Filing Certificate and 5% from others.

A Contractee/Purchaser is required to deduct and deposit STDS/TCS every month. For such purposehe will have to enrol himself electronically (w.e.f. 20.01.2012) & generate his login User ID & Passwordonline. The deducted amount of STDS/TCS is deposited in the Govt. Exchequer either through GRIPS orthrough IFMS. He is also required to upload a Scroll of deduction & payment details in Form-19A everymonth. Based on such uploaded data, he generates and issues Certificate of Deduction in Form 18A toeach contractor/supplier every month.

At present, the entire procedural system of STDS/TCS has been made available to the Contracteesthrough the user friendly interfaces of the e-services provided under designated link e-STDS/e-TCS & e-payment as available in http://wbcomtax.nic.in. Here, the Contractees can perform the entire proceduresof STDS i.e., enrolment, generation of User id/Password, revival of forgotten User Id & Password, depositingSTDS/TCS, uploading Form 19A and generation of Form 18A online at ease. Contractees depositingSTDS through GRIPS are not even required to submit any hard copies of the uploaded Form 19A makingthe process further more user friendly.

Simultaneously, the Contractors /Suppliers can also avail the resultant facility of such STDS/TCS e-services by being able to view the STDS/TCS deducted from them by various Contractees/Purchasers in amonth by logging into their respective DEALER'S PROFILE.

For the Officials of the Directorate, the details of the contractors/suppliers as uploaded by theContractee/Purchaser in Form 19A and the payment made by him is available real time in IMPACT.

Moreover, the details of unregistered Contractors/Suppliers are also available in IMPACT whichmay help in ascertaining their CTP or sale price and bringing them under tax-network.

The mismatch between STDS/TCS declared in Form 19A w.r.t. that in Form 14 is also available inthe Internal Website.

The data for the period 1994-2012, for which Contractees had to enrol themselves manually and amanual Form 19 had to be submitted by them, has also been provided in IMPACT.

The STDS data which were earlier e-mailed and made available to the charge offices and CorporateDivision, are now available online through IMPACT. As a result, the CTP declared by a Dealer in hisReturn in a specified period can be compared with the CTP on which STDS deductions have been madeby various Contractees. Similarly, the STDS claimed by a Dealer in his Return in a specified period can becompared to the actual STDS that have been credited in the Govt. Exchequer which may be allowable tohim in a specified period.

48


As per provisions of the statute, STDS/TCS other than those transferred through IFMS, has to bemandatorily made through GRIPS. Thus, any Form 19A uploaded with mode of payment other thanGRIPS/Book Transfer (IFMS) will result in non-generation of Form 18A. A new application has beendeveloped wherefrom, an online grant for generation of Form 18A is given to Contractees who havemade such payment of STDS/TCS through manual challan, after verification of such payment document.Also, the GRIPS data entered by a Contractee in his Form 19A is auto-validated from the GRIPS portalonly after which he is allowed to generate Form 18A. This has negated the possibility of availing unduecredit of STDS by any dealer based on erroneous data uploaded in Form 19A.

Also, as per provisions of the statute, a Contractee can revise his Form 19A for a particular monthonly within 40 days from the end of such month. A new application has been developed wherefrom, anonline grant for uploading of Form 19A for a particular is given to Contractees who need to uploadRevised Form 19A even after expiry of such 40 days, after approval from the Authority.

A system has been developed by STDS Cell in the F.Y. 2015-2016 on integrating with IntegratedFinancial Management System (IFMS) through which, the STDS/TCS deduction data as entered in TR-12Aby the DDOs of various State Govt. Offices is being transferred from IFMS and auto-uploaded as Form19A for each month. Thus, the DDOs of all WB Govt Offices deducting STDS/TCS through IFMS will nothave to take the trouble to upload Form19A manually. They are required to log into the system anddownload Form 18A straight way.

This has naturally eased out the procedural aspects of STDS/TCS for the DDOs of various StateGovt. Offices resulting in compliance from their end. It has also resulted in substantial augmentation ofRevenue as well as affirmative data management of STDS Cell has been ensured.

As a result of such integration of STDS with IFMS, the compliance level of WB Govt. Contractees interms of collection of revenue through IFMS, which has increased to Rs. 323.33 crores in F.Y. 2016-2017compared to Rs. 274.92 crores in F.Y. 2015-16.

The officials of STDS Cell have toiled hard to increase awareness among all the Contractees regardingtheir liability to deduct STDS & TCS resulting in increase in the compliance level in terms of deduction &deposit of STDS/TCS in Govt. Exchequer through GRIPS & IFMS and online uploading of Form 19A(other than those auto-uploaded through IFMS).

The officials of STDS Cell have also relentlessly pursued contractees who are defaulters in depositingSTDS/TCS and/or uploading Form 19A resulting in increased compliance levels of Contractees andcollection of Interest for late payment of STDS/TCS and Late Fees for late uploading of Form 19A.

Actions have also been taken to train the contractees on the process of e-STDS. Contractees all overthe State have been contacted over phone & e-mail. The Officials of STDS Cell have attended a numberof seminars and workshops organized on STDS & TCS both in Kolkata and in District level e.g. DDOs ofWB Govt, the Insurance Sector & Higher Educational Institutions, have been made to pursue them tocomply with the provisions of the statute as well clarifying various queries made by them relating to theprovisions, procedures & various changes occurring in the ambit of STDS & TCS. Also, various Contracteesin Kolkata have been pursued in this regard on paying occasional visits at their place as well as on issuingNotices under Section 66 of the WBVAT Act, 2003.

49


As a result of the constant persuasion:

(i) Collection in terms of STDS/TCS deposited in Govt. Exchequer for the period 2016-2017 has resultedin a substantial growth of 8.49% [Rs. 1235.58 crores in F.Y. 2016-2017 compared to Rs. 1138.86crores in F.Y. 2015-2016].

(ii) Collection of Interest & Late Fees has been made of Rs. 50.68 lakhs in the period 2016-2017.

(iii) Number of enrolled Contractees for the period 2016-2017 has resulted in a substantial growth of20.12% [14260 in F.Y. 2016-2017 compared to 11871 in F.Y. 2015-2016].

(iv) Compliance in terms of the number of Form 19As uploaded for the period 2016-2017 has resultedin a substantial growth of 31.17% [49096 in F.Y. 2016-2017 compared to 37427 in F.Y. 2015-2016].

(v) Compliance in terms of the number of contractees who have uploaded Form 19As for the period2016-2017 has resulted in a substantial growth of 43.02% [8677 in F.Y. 2016-2017 compared to6067 in F.Y. 2015-2016].

The overall performance of STDS Cell in terms of collection of revenue, new enrolment of contractees& uploading of Form 19As for the period 2015-2016 compared to the previous five (05) financial years isshown in the analysis as below:

Collection :

Period Collection of STDS(Rs. In Crores)

2011-12 335.34

2012-13 367.74

2013-14 608.99

2014-15 801.24

2015-16 1138.86

2016-17 1235.58

50


Enrolment:

Period No. of Contractees newly Total No of enrolledenrolled [during the F.Y.] Contractees [till the end of the

F.Y.]

2011-12 260 260 [till 31.03.2012]

2012-13 2973 3233 [till 31.03.2013]

2013-14 1913 5146 [till 31.03.2014]

2014-15 2328 7474 [till 31.03.2015]

2015- 16 4397 11871 [till 31.03.2016]

2016-17 2389 14260 [till 31.03.2017]

Uploading of Form 19A:

Period No. of Contractees having No. of Form 19A uploadeduploaded Form 19A

2011-12 1734 8952

2012-13 2955 19921

2013-14 3623 22840

2014-15 3982 23000

2015- 16 6067 37427

2016-17 8677 49096

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25. LAW SECTION

This Important Wing of the Tax Directorate is responsible for monitoring disputes between theaggrieved parties and the State of West Bengal at different legal forums, like the West Bengal CommercialTaxes Appellate and Revision Board, the West Bengal Taxation Tribunal, the West Bengal StateAdministrative Tribunal, Central Sales Tax Appellate Authority, the Kolkata High Court, the SupremeCourt of India and other Civil and Criminal Courts. Law Section maintains liaison with the LegalRemembrance's Office, Advocate General's & G.P.'s Office of the State Govt. and the State Lawyers,defending the State of West Bengal in all the Courts.

The Law Section provides the Revenue Representatives, Departmental Representatives & StateRepresentatives with the Appellate and Assessment records for effective representation before the FastTrack Revisional Authority, West Bengal Commercial Taxes Appellate and Revision Board & the WestBengal Taxation Tribunal respectively. At the same time it also arranges for transmission of the orders ofthe Board & Tribunal to the concerned departmental authorities. When a judgement and order of theBoard or Tribunal is found to be erroneous or not acceptable by the department, the Law Section helps infiling review petitions on the matter before the higher legal forums.

It arranges for engagement of senior lawyers of Kolkata High Court to defend intricate cases in theWest Bengal Taxation Tribunal as and when proposed by State Representatives at the West Bengal TaxationTribunal. Complex cases having a significant bearing on State Revenue & important ramifications on theprinciples underlying the legislations are closely monitored by Law Section & technical inputs provided,to fortify the State's stand & views. The Law Section also provides assistance in completion of legaldocumentation formalities in the cases referred to the Kolkata High Court, before the Hon'ble SingleBench or the Division Bench. It arranges for engagement of Lawyers through the Office of the LegalRemembrance and arranges conferences & interactions between the State Counsels and the quasi-judiciaryauthorities concerned on legal issues. The Law Section also facilitates appointments & interactive meetingswith the Advocates-on records at the High Court & Supreme Court & also maintains close liaison with theAdvocate General's Office.

52


The Law Section also regulates & monitors the cases related to the Service Matters in the WestBengal Administrative Tribunal. It performs the duty of engagement of lawyers and day-to-day monitoringof the cases in respect of disputes relating to the Service Matter of the employees of this Directorate. TheLaw Section facilitates preparation of Statement of Facts & Replies to Petitions filed in the Tribunal &assists the State Advocate to draft Affidavits-in-Reply. It performs liaison work with the Finance Department,State Vigilance and other statutory authorities in this matter & collects technical data from various sub-offices of our Directorate to fortify the Government's stand in cases before the Administrative Tribunal. Inthe F.Y. 2016-17, two new cases have been filed, six service related cases have been disposed by theWBAT & seven cases remains pending at WBAT as on 31.03.2016.

It has to also monitor CST Act related cases pending before the Central Administrative Tribunal.Law Section also monitors cases in the matter of Entry Tax in the High Court & Apex Court where numerouscases have been filed challenging the constitutional validity of Entry Tax Legislation in West Bengal.There is a Cell in the Law Section dedicated for monitoring of cases before the Board for Industrial &Financial Reconstruction/the Appellate Authority for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction.

STATUS OF HIGH COURT CASES

(As on 31.03.2017)

Opening Balance 1034

New cases 1059

Total Disposed 954

In favour of Revenue 599

Pending/Closing balance 1139

Percentage of cases disposed in favour of the 62.79%Revenue

STATUS OF WEST BENGAL TAXATION TRIBUNAL CASES

(As on 31.03.2017)

Opening Balance 3620

New cases 1633

Disposed 486

Pending/closing balance 4767

The Law Section also provides back-up support & access to government records to our advocate-on-record at the Supreme Court of India and there is regular despatch & receipt of case-related documents.Supreme Court cases are closely monitored by the officers of Law Section & at times Officers of LawSection are deputed to New Delhi to assist the State's Standing Counsel in contesting the case before theApex Court.

Law Section also monitors the cases filed before different lower courts like the City Civil Courts andDistrict Civil Courts involving the Tax Directorate.

Law Section also helps in ascertaining whether appeal, revision/reference to higher judicial forumsis necessary in the interest of Govt. revenue. It also arranges for circulation of significant judicial decisionsamong the concerned authorities. The Law Section also offers opinion on merits/demerits in contestingRevenue & Service matter cases in the various legal forums.

53


The Law Section has a well equipped library for judicial reference available to all departmentalofficers. It also provides STC online and supplies important judgement copies on request.

The Law Section arranges for procurement & distribution of Legal Journals & Case Compilations(STA, VAT & Service Tax Cases) among Officers of the Directorate.

A Status Report on Progress & Performance in Court Cases in various Central & State Legal Forumsis provided below:

STATUS OF COURT CASES AT CENTRAL SALES TAX APPELLATE AUTHORITY ANDSUPREME COURT OF INDIA

(As on 31.03.2017)

A] Central Sales Tax Appellate Authority:

Opening Balance 07

New cases 01

Disposed Cases 00

Pending 08

B] Supreme Court of India:

Opening Balance 57

New cases 00

Disposed Cases 01

a] In Favour of Revenue 01

b] Against Revenue 00

Pending/Closing balance 56

Law section also monitors cases filed at West Bengal Administrative Tribunal against the Stateregarding the service matters of employee where this Directorate is one of the respondents.

STATUS OF CASES AT WEST BENGAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL(As on 31.03.2017)

Opening Balance 16

New cases 03

Disposed Cases 01

Pending 18

26. FAST TRACK REVISIONAL AUTHORITY

With an aim for quick disposal of Revision Cases arising out of Assessment Orders, a new schemenamed Fast Track Revision was last introduced by way of an amendment to the West Bengal Finance Act,2010 [vide Notification No. 445-L dated 03.03.10].

The previous Fast Track Court functioned till 31st day of March, 2013. Since all the cases transferredfor the purpose had been disposed of by the Fast Track Court, the Court was wound up on 31.03.2013.

Last year in the State Budget for 2015-16, the Government had proposed setting up of a Fast TrackAdministrative & Revision Authority for accelerating disposal of revision cases pending at the West BengalAppellate & Revision Board as on 31.03.2015.

54


Accordingly Section 87A & Section 9(2) of the West Bengal VAT Act, 2005 & CST Act 1956 hasbeen suitably amended w.e.f. 01.04.2015 & Notifications issued by the Government bearing Nos. 67 &68 dated 18.01.2016, laying down the ground rules for selection of Revision Applications pending beforethe WBA&RB for fast track adjudication by the FTRA.

Pending revision cases where the total demand in dispute is between Rs. 10.00 lakhs & up toRs.1.00 crores under WBVAT Act'03 & upto Rs.1.00 crores under CST Act'56 has been transferred to theFast Track Revisional Authority for speedy disposal. Revision Cases already disposed of through SOD hasalso been exempted from the purview of Fast Track Court.

Necessary work has already been completed by the Board & Law Section for identifying, selection& transfer of the relevant files from the West Bengal Appellate & Revision Board to the Fast Track RevisionAuthority & the entire data on transferred files digitised for easy reference & record.

The FTRA (Fast Track Court) has commenced functioning on & from 08.02.2016 with six Benches,each Bench comprising of one Additional Commissioner as Presiding Member & one AdditionalCommissioner as Member. Six Officers of the ranks of Senior Joint Commissioner & Joint Commissionershave been assigned as Revenue Representatives to assist the Bench Members in the Case presentations &hearings.

In the year Financial Year 2016-17 total number of revision applications disposed of by FTRAstands at 2447 (VAT: 1139 & CST: 1308) and total realisation of locked in revenue is Rs.5.64 crores (VAT+CST).

27. THE WEST BENGAL COMMERCIAL TAXES APPELLATE AND REVISIONAL BOARD

The West Bengal Commercial Taxes Appellate and Revision Board - erstwhile West BengalCommercial Taxes Tribunal started functioning since 27.04.1974. It substituted the Board of Revenue.The new name was given to mark its distinction from West Bengal Taxation Tribunal. It is an independentDirectorate under the Department of Finance (Revenue) of the Government of West Bengal since22.04.1975.

A branch office of this Board is set up at Siliguri in the Dist. of Darjeeling with effect from 01.01.2015vide Notification No.2001- F.T. dated 15.12.2014.

Distribution of personnel and present strength as on 31.03.2017 in the Board at Kolkata.

Sl.No. Designation of Post Sanctioned Strength Present Strength

1 President (Judicial) 01 01

2 Judicial Member 03 00

3 Administrative Member 03 03

4 Accounts Member 01 01

5 Registrar 01 01

6 Deputy Registrar 01 00

7 Stenographer 06 03

8 Group 'C' Staff 31 06

9 Group 'D' Staff 16 02

Total 63 17

55


Re-Employed Staff

Group 'C' Staff 02 02

Stenographer 00 00

Group 'D' Staff 00 00

Total 02 02

Siliguri Branch


1 Judicial Member 01 00

2 Administrative Member 01 01

3 Registrar/D.D.O. 01 01

4 Stenographer 02 00

5 Group 'C' Staff 04 00(01 addl. Duty)

6 Group 'D' Staff 03 00

Total 12 02

Grand Total of Staff Strength 77 21

The President heads the Board of eight members. The President - Primus inter pares and threeothers are appointed from State Judicial Service, three from State Commercial Tax Service and one fromAudit and Accounts Service. Many of the orders passed by the Board were not only affirmed in but alsoapplauded by the highest judicial forum. The fact that many of its members later served in High Courtbears testimony of its success. It bridges the administration to judiciary and on occasion to legislaturealso.

ACTS ADMINISTERED:

The Board deals with Commercial Taxes, Agricultural Income Tax & Electricity Duty of the State.The Board having almost all the essential features of the Court of Law is the last quasi-judicial fact findingforum in revenue administration. It acts as the forensic sieve to revenue.

Position of Revision (VAT) Cases & Agricultural Income Tax cases in the West Bengal Commercial TaxesAppellate & Revisional Board in the Financial Year 2016-17 as on 31.03.2017.

A. i) Opening Balance as on 01.04.2016 13441

ii) Revision Cases filed during the year 2016-17 (+)2494

Sub Total 15935

iii) Revision Cases disposed during the year 2016-17 (-)3212

Sub Total 12723

iv) Restoration of Rev. Cases 00

Sub Total 12723

v) S.O.D/Form-4 received (-)1339

Cases pending at the end of 2016-17 (A) 11384


56


B. i) Agri Income Tax Opening Balance as on 01.04.2016 03

ii) Cases filed during the year 2016-17 00

iii) Cases disposed during the year 2016-17 00

Cases pending at the end of 2016-17 ( B) 03

Total number of Cases pending at the end of 2016-17 (A + B) 11387

28. PUBLIC RELATION SECTION

Public Relation Section of the Directorate of Commercial Taxes is the face of the Directorate(excepting Profession Tax) - being the official communicator in respect of almost each & every issuerelated to the Directorate. Apart from daily interactions with visitors as well as callers on telephoneregarding queries on matters relating to the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994, the West Bengal ValueAdded Tax Act, 2003, the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (74 of 1956), the West Bengal Tax on Entry ofGoods into Local Areas Act, 2012 and Goods and Services Tax Law this section is entrusted with the jobof :-

1) Preparation and publication of Advertisements to be published in Newspapers;

2) Preparation and publication of Trade Circulars and Departmental Circulars;

3) Communication with the Union Government and other State Governments on present andprospective issues of Taxation;

4) Giving written/telephonic/e-mail replies to queries made by Governments, various institutions,Tax payers, Dealers, Tax Practitioners, Trade Bodies and other persons;

5) Publication of orders made by the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, W.B. in relation toapplications made before him u/s 102 of the WBVAT Act, 2003;

6) Preparation and publication of Departmental Circulars and other Circulars issued by theCommissioner of Commercial Taxes, W.B. guiding the officers of the Directorate on certainimportant issues;

7) Processing of pre-budget proposals received from Chambers of Commerce, Trade Bodies,Industries and individuals on the taxation matters dealt in by the Directorate;

8) Attending seminars, symposiums and events organised by Trade bodies, other Govt.Departments and other associations;

9) Organising seminar and outreach programs on GSTN and GST laws; and

10) Organising meetings of the Consultative Committee.

This section is now headed by one Additional Commissioner who is being assisted by one JointCommissioner, one Deputy Commissioner and one Assistant Sales Tax Officer.

Trade Circulars issued in 2016-17:

Trade Date SubjectCircular No.

04/2016 04-04-2016 Sale-Purchase Mismatch.

380CT/PRO 29-04-2016 Extension of the last date of filing Profession Tax Return for Y.E. 31/03/2016.

379CT/PRO 29-04-2016 Extension of the last date of filing VAT Return for Q.E / Y.E. 31/03/2016.

57


442CT/PRO 13-05-2016 Authorisation to act as appropriate assessing authority and delegation ofpower to act as appropriate revisional authority.

660CT/PRO 25-07-2016 Extension of the last date of filing VAT Return for Q.E. 30/06/2016.

05/2016 25-07-2016 Mandatory Submission of Return using Digital Signature.

742CT/PRO 23-08-2016 Further extension of the last date for filing VAT Return for Q.E. 30/06/2016.

761CT/PRO 02-09-2016 Implementation of Judicial Pronouncements/Orders.

767CT/PRO 06-09-2016 Further extension of the last date for filing WBST Return for Q.E. 30/06/2016.

766CT/PRO 06-09-2016 Further extension of the last date for filing VAT Return for Q.E. 30/06/2016.

06/2016 26-10-2016 Urgent updation of E-mail addresses and contact mobile numbers by dealersregistered under WBVAT Act, 2003.

904CT/PRO 28-10-2016 Extension of the last date for filing WBST Return for Q.E. 30/09/2016.

903CT/PRO 28-10-2016 Extension of the last date for filing VAT Return for Q.E. 30/09/2016.


918CT/PRO 09-11-2016 Extension of the last date of filing WBST Return for Q.E. 30/09/2016.

Order by 11-11-2016 Authorisation of IIU.CCT


950CT/PRO 16-11-2016 Extension of the last date of filing WBST Return for Q.E. 30/09/2016.

07/2016 30-12-2016 Settlement of Dispute


01/2017 20-03-2017 Allowing an enrolled transporter for resetting password for generatingcertificate in Form -11.

02/2017 28-03-2017 Compulsory use of Digital Signature for filing online application forRegistration.

Departmental Circulars issued in 2016-17:Departmental Date SubjectCircular No.393CT/PRO 04-05-2016 Improving the quality of Assessment Order / Audit Report.

392CT/PRO 04-05-2016 Post-Assessment Refund.

DC-822 24-05-2016 Introduction of Dealer's Place Visit Entry Module for CTD officials.701CT/PRO 25-07-2016 Addendum to Memo 669CT/PRO dt. 25/07/2016.

669CT/PRO 25-07-2016 Transfer of files from and to LTU.DC-586 03-08-2016 Order by CCT/WB - Sanctioning authority for claims relating to hired

vehicles of BI-II

1120-FT 04-08-2016 Order on GST Cell1280-FT 01-09-2016 Creation of GST Cell under the Finance Department.

12136CT 16-09-2016 Administrative approval and financial sanction for hiring 49 (fortynine) vehicles.

Trade Date SubjectCircular No.

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937CT 11-11-2016 ITC Investigation Unit to be headed by an officer not below the rankof Joint Commissioner.

31CT/PRO 18-01-2017 Introduction of Employee Details Module for GSTN.

3369 29-03-2017 Formation of committee for study of anti evasion work in GSTregime.

352CT/PRO 29-03-2017 Eligibility Certificate to be considered as 'Certificate' for Settlement ofDispute.

393CT/PRO 04-05-2016 Improving the quality of Assessment Order / Audit Report.

392CT/PRO 04-05-2016 Post-Assessment Refund.

DC-822 24-05-2016 Introduction of Dealer's Place Visit Entry Module for CTD officials.

701CT/PRO 25-07-2016 Addendum to Memo 669CT/PRO dt. 25/07/2016.

669CT/PRO 25-07-2016 Transfer of files from and to LTU.

DC-586 03-08-2016 Order by CCT/WB - Sanctioning authority for claims relating to hiredvehicles of BI-II

1120-FT 04-08-2016 Order on GST Cell

1280-FT 01-09-2016 Creation of GST Cell under the Finance Department.

12136CT 16-09-2016 Administrative approval and financial sanction for hiring 49 (fortynine) vehicles.

937CT 11-11-2016 ITC Investigation Unit to be headed by an officer not below the rankof Joint Commissioner.

31CT/PRO 18-01-2017 Introduction of Employee Details Module for GSTN.

3369 29-03-2017 Formation of committee for study of anti evasion work in GSTregime.

352CT/PRO 29-03-2017 Eligibility Certificate to be considered as 'Certificate' for Settlement ofDispute.

29. ITC INVESTIGATION UNIT (IIU)

ITC Investigation Unit [IIU] under the office of the Commissioner is comparatively a new investigationwing of the Directorate of Commercial Taxes, GoWB. It was created vide Trade Circular No. 14/2014,dated 27.08.2014 with the primary intent to investigate tax evasion through false and exaggerated claimsof ITC by means of bogus circular trading, or fictitious transactions involving fake tax invoices. Further,Gazette Notification 790-FT dated 28.05.2015 and CCT's order dated 11.11.2016. The unit effectivelystarted from 2015.

The Unit is presently headed by Additional Commissioner, Commercial Taxes and comprised of 1Senior Joint Commissioner, 1 Joint Commissioner of Sales Tax, 5 Deputy Commissioners of Sales Tax, 9Sales Tax Officers and 9 Assistant Sales Tax Officers.

Focused area of work in 2016-17:

1. Detection of suspect bogus dealers by development of analytical tools. Identified suspect fakedealers through analytical study of extract of returns in specified format with the help of DataAnalysis Wing (DAW), transaction and ratio analysis, information from Registrar of Companies(ROC) etc.

Departmental Date SubjectCircular No.

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2. Investigation against bogus dealers involved in racketeering of ITC.

3. Coordination with the charge offices for ab-initio / retrospective cancellation of registration certificate(RC) of the fake dealers.

4. Preparation of list of beneficiaries who enjoyed unlawful ITC against purported purchases from ITCracketeering bogus dealers which helped assessing, auditing and investigating officers of theDirectorate in reversing ITC enjoyed unlawfully by the beneficiary dealers. This has also helped inblocking inadmissible refund.

5. Investigation on unlawful claim of ITC by the beneficiary dealers.

6. Selective investigation on mismatch cases referred by DAW.

7. Verification of claim of concessional rate of tax against Central forms obtained from cancelleddealers

8. Lodging complaint / FIR against the errant dealers.

9. Building online repository of the reports drawn against bogus dealer which will be accessible to theofficers of the Directorate.

10. Digital repository of judgments/ orders passed by Tribunals, High Courts and Supreme Court relatedto ab-initio / retrospective cancellation, claim of ITC etc.

11. Addressing efficiently cases at WBTT & High Court.

12. Efficient processing of de-selection / re-selection of e-services of way bill and central forms, restoration/ cancellation of registration certificate.

Performance in 2016-17:

Number of reports drawn leading to ab-initio / retrospective cancellation of RC 84

Amount of ITC involved in the reports drawn leading to ab-initio / retrospective Rs 474,45,35,503cancellation of RC by real beneficiary / intermediate fake dealers

Number of cases initiated 338

No of cases in which investigation has been completed 218

Amount of evasion detected Rs 121,29,59,161

Amount realised Rs 50,79,59,338

No of seizures made 4

Number of FIR/ complaint lodged 11

• Officials of IIU have successfully made a number money trail analysis which unearthed nexusbetween the ITC racketeering dealers and beneficiary dealers.

• Successful coordination with the charge offices has resulted for ab-initio / retrospective cancellationof registration certificate (RC) of the fake dealers. Registration certificates of about 400 such dealershave been cancelled ab-initio / retrospectively.

• Prepared of list of beneficiaries who enjoyed unlawful ITC against purported purchases from ITCracketeering bogus dealers with the help of DAW and made available to the assessing, auditing andinvestigating officers of the Directorate.

• An online repository of the reports drawn against bogus dealer has been created with the help ofISD.

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• Efficient and timely processing of de-selection / re-selection of e-services of way bill and centralforms in association with charge offices and Bureau of Investigation Unit-I, II & III and ISD broughtremarkable effect in arresting racketeering of way bill and collection of due taxes.

Shortcomings:

In spite of dedicated effort, IIU has following shortcomings -

• Large number of suspect fake dealers remained unaddressed.

• Considerable number of beneficiaries claiming false ITC could not be investigated.

• Incomplete detection of real beneficiaries.

• More Complaint/FIR could be lodged.

• Improper record keeping.

• Delayed entry of bank statements.

• Could not build online repository of bank statement & KYC and

• Incomplete scanning of important documents

30. ONLINE GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL SYSTEM

It has been launched with effect from June 2014. Under this scheme, Registered Dealers and otherscan lodge their grievances online. The relevant tab is "e-grievance" which can be had fromwww.wbcomtax.gov.in. The procedure is as follows:

• The grievance is to be lodged online, immediately then auto generated SMS is sent to thecomplainant's mobile number and the concerned Nodal Officer's mobile number.

• Further progress of the grievance is being intimated through SMS.

• SMS is also sent when the grievance is closed.

• After receiving the SMS that a grievance has been lodged concerned Nodal officer takes up thegrievances.

• The nodal officer can give interim reply.

• The grievance is to be closed within 30 days time.

• Complainant can escalate the grievance to the Nodal Officer of the Directorate in case he is notsatisfied with the redressal.

• Any interim report, grievance closure will be intimated to the complainant through the SMS.

• The Nodal Officer of the Directorate keeps track on the grievance redressal procedure.

• Presently, an Additional Commissioner Commercial Taxes, WB is the dedicated Nodal Officer ofthe Directorate.

The Master Database

• It has the mobile numbers of all the Nodal Officers who are the administrative heads of the Charges,Circles, BI, PT, Ranges, Headquarters and others.

• The ISD of the Directorate is in charge of updating the same with respect to any changes arising outof transfer posting, change in the mobile numbers of the Nodal Officers.

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• The entire system requires valid mobile numbers on part of both the Nodal Officers and complainantto work without any Face to Face interaction.

For the F.Y. 2016-17, total Grievances Lodged & Redressed=416 .Most of the grievances redressedwithin one week time excepting a few which needed a fortnight or more as the procedure requiredthorough scrutiny of relevant files. Close monitoring is being done for ensuring quality & timely redressalof grievances lodged.

31. CENTRAL SECTION

Central Section, Kolkata, one of the functionaries of the Directorate of Commercial Taxes wasentrusted with anti-evasion works of varied nature. After reconstruction, by way of creation of Bureau ofInvestigation, the anti-evasion functions of different wings under the Central Section, Kolkata have becomevery limited.

The Checkposts at the Airport and Dock areas are taking necessary steps to see that goods arebrought into the State in compliance with all legal requirements.

Central Section, Kolkata, through its Way Bill Section performs an important role in allowingmovements of goods and encouraging e-Business. Unregistered dealers / persons / institutions orGovernment and semi Government organizations could use e-way bill facilities. The Officers attached toWay Bill Section has toiled hard to dispose of applications filed online by the applicants from within theState as well as outside. The applicants could also avail e-mail services for sorting out their problems inuploading applications through e-mail service. Through the e-initiative, we are able to reach applicantsanywhere in our State. The amount collected in the form of VAT by way of issue of Way Bill was asfollows:-

Year No. of Way Bill issued VAT Collected (in lakhs

2014-2015 13990 636.25

2015-2016 14201 821.61

2016-2017 12763 741.21

There was substantial growth of collection of Entry Tax during this year:

Year Entry Tax (in lakhs)

2014-2015 2922.59

2015-2016 1332.55

2016-2017 1938.00

Exhibition Cell:

The organizers from different part of the society on different occasions round the year could getpermit for Exhibition-cum-Sale of goods ranging from consumer goods, machinery, furniture, sports goodsto garments, jewellery and tourism. Collection of advance tax by way of giving permission as per provisionof Section 100 of WBVAT Act, 2003, was of Rs. 99.17 lakhs during 2015-2016.

Year No. of Applicants VAT Collected (in lakhs) Growth

2014-2015 307 74.67

2015-2016 344 99.17 33%

2016-2017 334 100.96 1.80%

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Non-Resident Dealers:

Central Section, Kolkata, through its non-residents dealers' wing monitors submission of returns,

issue of Way Bill and payment of taxes. Number of living dealers at present stands at 75. Works Contractor

and importers from outside the State could get advantage of getting registration as non-resident dealer.

Collection from non-resident dealers are as under:-

Year Amount (Rs. in crores) Growth

2014-2015 6.74

2015-2016 7.29 8.11%

2016-2017 9.22 26.47%

32. CENTRAL REFUND UNIT

Central Refund Unit (CRU) is an important wing under the Directorate of Commercial Taxes entrusted

with the task of processing and disposing both pre- assessment refund & post assessment refund applications

of the dealers, above five lakhs, arising out of assessment, appeal or revision. Headed by an Additional

Commissioner, The CRU consists of seven officers in the ranks of Senior Joint Commissioner, Joint

Commissioners & Commercial Tax Officers.

CRU plays a pivotal role to prevent any loss of revenue through fraudulent or unlawful claims of

refund. It not only examines the sale & purchase of the refund claimant but also probes into the major

suppliers of the refund claimant to find out whether purchases are from bona fide or bogus dealers who

issue or receive tax invoices only without entering into actual transactions.

Starting from the examination of the dealer's final accounts in case of post-assessment refund, to

the perusal of the assessment orders, audit orders, appellate orders etc. as applicable, every attempt is

made to check evasion & pilferage of revenue by way of refund. In many occasions CRU has detected

some hidden taxable sale that had not been taken into account while determining the dealer's taxable

turnover, inadvertently at the time of assessment. In many occasions CRU has unearthed false & fraudulent

claim and offered suggestions to the assessing authority about how to probe the genuineness of the ITC

claim. In many such cases, the assessment orders have been reviewed and the amount of refund has been

reduced or refund did not occur at all.

In the IT driven era of tax administration and e-governance, CRU on a regular basis verifies data

from websites like DGFT, ICEGATE etc, and also draw on findings of the Data Analysis Wing, ITC

Investigation Unit & other such agencies.

On prima facie findings of gross mismatch or anomaly, CRU passes the information to the proper

investigating agencies for further investigation. On several occasions, the findings of the CRU have paved

the way for recovery of substantial tax & cancellation of registrations of the bogus dealers.

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In a Circular dated 04.05.2016, CRU was directed to do advance analysis of the dealers whoclaimed refund of excess ITC for 4 Q.E.31.03.2014 and to share it with the assessing authorities. Theofficers of the CRU performed the stupendous task within a very short time.

The recent changes in the statute providing for interest on delayed refund made it imperative togrant refund immediately after assessment. Courts too have imposed cost and directed the Commissionerto initiate departmental proceedings against the concerned officer(s). Keeping that in mind CRU has todispose of such cases on the emergency basis.

In the ensuing GST regime, and more so in the transition period, CRU will have to take addedresponsibility of disposing refund cases, both pre-assessment & post-assessment of different periods underthe WBVAT Act, post-assessment refund cases under the CST Act, and refund cases under the GST Act.

Refund granted during 01.04.2016 to 31.03.2017 from the CRU

No. of cases disposed Amount of refund (in crores)

Pre-assessment refund 604 67.02

Post-assessment refund 326 113.25

Total 930 180.27

Pre assessment refund (Amount in Rs.) during last five years

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

Application disposed 272 389 883 784 604

Refund granted (In Crores) 51.13 54.37 169.30 150.98 67.02

Post assessment refund (Amount in Rs.) during last five years

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

Application disposed 85 226 353 681 326

Refund granted (In Crores) 16.34 72.91 162.46 183.61 113.25

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33. INFORMATION SYSTEMS DIVISION

Information Systems Division (ISD) is the bulwark through which the task of the Government processre-engineering of the entire Directorate takes place to achieve the goal of SMART (Simple, Moral,Accountable, Responsive and Transparent) Governance and is also responsible for the maintenance andupgradation of the Information Technology infrastructure of the Directorate.

ISD has been a catalyst in rolling out the citizen-centric/business-centric services with a view toreduce the cost of compliance and enhancing the ease of business in the State of West Bengal. As resultof untiring efforts of ISD, the Directorate has won several e-Governance awards like, CSI Nihilent Award,National e-Governance Award, SKOCH Award, Golden Peacock Award, etc.

To work towards this end, ISD does the requirement projection of hardware, software and networkingequipments appropriate to all offices throughout the State with the help of its technical partners - the NIC,WTL, as well as, under the guidelines laid by DEIT and Finance Department. It convenes and organisesmeeting of Project e Mission Team (PeMT). PeMT is the apex body that takes final decision forimplementation of services and procurement of all associated items related to computerization underMMPCT.

Project e Mission Team (PeMT) is a body comprising of CCT/WB and representatives from NIC,WTL, Finance Department and the line Department i.e. Commercial Taxes Directorate. PeMT is alsoresponsible to formulate plan, coordinate and roll out after e services.

While rendering eServices to the citizens and business community, there is a need to extend ahelping hand to such users for availing these services. A Helpdesk has been setup under the directsupervision of ISD for this purpose and a dedicated team of officials are working there during workinghours. There is an escalation matrix in place regarding the technical issues that remained unresolved atthe Helpdesk level and a team of Officers from ISD and NIC look into those issues for its early resolution.

All the officers of the Directorate are now equipped with PCs and are connected through networkas the entire work process has been re-engineered to make it online. ISD is responsible for maintenanceof the entire IT infrastructure of the Directorate.

The responsibility of bringing out the Administrative Report compiling data and information of allwings and cells of the Directorate is also taken by the ISD.

Though all the information pertaining to public domain to Trade Associations, Other Governmentsand Institutions is generally given out by the PRO Section but the actual dissemination of the same isdone through ISD. This is done through its official website www.wbcomtax.gov.in, which is maintainedby ISD. With increase in e-Services and information provided by the Directorate the number of visits tothe site has been rising steadily.

The e-Governance measures not only reduce the cost of compliance and increase ease of doingbusiness by the Dealers/Business entities, it also aids the efforts of the administration to augment revenueand tax compliance. CTD is always trying to introduce more and more e-services and upgrading them toincrease tax compliance.

On many occasions, in the matter of rolling out e-services West Bengal is amongst the pioneers.West Bengal is the only state in the country to have made e- registration mandatory, de-materializedRegistration Certificate and dispensed with prior hearing of the dealer before grant of registration. WestBengal is also one of the few States that has made the return filing 100% online.

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List of e-services rolled out / advancement of e-services introduced by the CT Directorate in 2016-17 areas under:-

Sl.no Application area Work details Launch Date Server

Registration

Revised demand notice forSpecial Audit

IMPACT user profileapplication

Return

GST information moduleunder Dealer profile

GST menu

Dashboard Query

Assessment for Entry Tax

Transporter Enrolment

Settlement of Dispute(SOD)

STDS – Informationcapturing from IFMS

DMS integration withIMPACT

a) DSC integration in VAT registration

b) Modification and Deletion of NewRegistration payment details.

c) File Transfer for outside charge of NRApplication under IMPACT module

Revised demand notice incorporatedunder Special Audit module

Transfer module and Dealer’s place visitmodule incorporated

a) DSC integration in Entry Tax return

b) DSC made compulsory in Return forthe dealers having Registration underCompanies Act or having Turnoverof Sales and CTP more than 50 lakh.

c) Barcode incorporated in returnAcknowledgement and provisionmade for capturing information fromreturn acknowledgement throughBarcode scanning

Dissemination of GST provisionalcredentials for migration under Dealerprofile

Application developed to upload GSTprovisional ids along with VAT TIN andnecessary MIS Application related to GST

Dashboard Query MIS

Entry tax return incorporated inAssessment module

a) MIS on enrolled transporter.

b) Grant Reset password under internalmodule

Module for capturing information andprocessing for ‘Settlement of Dispute’

Automatic capturing of STDS Return fromTR-12 Generation of IFMS

DMS integrated in Appeal module underIMPACT

31/03/2017

25/09/2016

03/10/2016

03/05/2016

11/07/2016

02/08/2016

02/08/2016

02/08/2016

03/12/2016

03/12/2016

02/02/2017

15/02/2017

09/03/2017

09/03/2017

31/03/2017

01/04/2016

26/04/2016

WBCOMTAX

IMPACT

IMPACT

IMPACT

IMPACT

WBCOMTAX

WBCOMTAX

WBCOMTAX

WBCOMTAX

IMPACT

IMPACT

IMPACT

IMPACT

IMPACT

IMPACT

WBCOMTAX

IMPACT

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

66


ISD has developed liaison with Railway authorities (FOIS/CRIS) to get details of inward freightmovements. ISD has also taken initiatives for getting vehicle movement details from NHAI at importantcheck posts.

The directorate had earlier successfully commissioned the migration of its internal database and allinternal applications to the newly procured Central Server System. The system started functioning in thenew environment of high end software and hardware platforms w.e.f 18.10.2012. All the hardware itemshave been put into operation in the state of the art 'State Data Centre (SDC)' managed by the Departmentof Information Technology, GoWB. Since 02-02-2015, the Directorate has migrated its applications fromWeb Server from NIC's Data Centre at Nizam Palace to its own Web Server at SDC and is integrated withthe systems of other Departments/Directorates like Finance Department (IFMS, GRIPS), Agriculture IncomeTax, Income Tax (PAN), etc.

ISD & TRANSITION TO GST REGIME

As ISD is the IT wing of our Directorate which naturally got the responsibility of ushering in theNEW TAX regime of GST ISD took up the following activities for ensuring smooth transition to GSTregime:

1. Making Provisional Ids (GSTIN) received from GSTN available to the dealers through webapplication as soon as receiving of the same

2. Facilitating PAN data rectification of the dealers

3. Sending incremental data of NR dealers to GSTN periodically for issuance of Provisional Ids

4. Sending data of dealers who have made amendments in their R.C. to GSTN

5. Helping dealers resolve issues faced in GST migration

6. Coordinating with GSTN regarding GST migration

7. ISD was instrumental in selecting a pool of officers who are conversant with computers andthe select ones were sent to INFOSYS Mahendra City campus during February 2017 forgetting GST portal training who in turn would train other employees of our Directorate andother stakeholders.

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Every year thousands of dealers file their return with the Directorate of Commercial Taxes, fromwhich some are selected by the Directorate for further assessment and scrutiny. In the process, the dealersare asked to submit various documents related to their business activities in hard-format (original/photocopies). This result in huge pile of physical records at the Directorate's office makes it very difficult for theCT officials to manage and process the files and consumes almost 30%+ (approx. based on departmentalestimate) of total floor space within the CTD HQ.

Though the records are maintained charge-wise, the bulky records pose great difficulty for the CTDofficials in the processing of the files especially at the time of retrieving old files and searching relevantrecords within such voluminous files. This is accentuated by other related issues such as misplacementand loss of records, physical navigation etc. Many demands also could not be recovered in absence ofrelevant records and information. The Directorate planned to address this problem with a help of aDocument Management System (DMS) and PWC was appointed as transaction advisor for preparing aproject report. The proposed solution has been addressing the document storage, cataloging, indexing,

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and searching needs of the Directorate. It also plans to digitize the assessment/ appeal files for the assessmentyear 2009-2010 onwards, which have approximately 80,000 files spread across West Bengal in its HQand various charge offices. CTD sought a system integrator to design/ develop/ configure a proven solutionto digitize the assessment/appeal records.

PWC submitted their report during the year 2013 and following that a tender process was initiatedto select the L1 vendor. M/S CMC Ltd had been selected for implementing the DMS for CTD at a cost ofRs. 7.86 crore and work order was issued to them in January 2014. Initial preparatory work had beenstarted by CMC Ltd and scanning of assessment records had already commenced for some selectedCharges. From May, 2015, DMS has effectively been launched and integrated with IMPACT. The processof uploading documents and sending emails through DMS has started with the Assessment, Audit, SpecialAudit cases of FY 2012-13 onwards.

PROFILE OF DMS DURING 2016-17

Service Name No. of documents uploaded No. of emails sent

Adjournment Notice 6833 6570

Appeal Petition 1 0

Assessment Order 26720 23660

Audit Report 8262 7402

Case related documents or detail 13 0of accounts and claims

Computation Sheet 6570 6135

Demand Notice 26648 23715

Documents related to 5 0Appeal-Revision-Review

Draft Assessment Order 10548 9642

Draft Audit Report 7218 6627

File Requisition 738 7

Final Order 915 506

Form 1026 1316 1272

Form 69 1364 1347

Initiation Notice 55754 52932

Miscellaneous documents 31 0

Modified Demand Notice 11 0

Order forwarding 15 15

Order_sheet 39 0

Payment Challan 2 0

Payments 1 0

Penalty proceedings 4 0

Report 10 0

Show Cause 822 16

Total 153840 139846

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VOICE OVER IP PHONE

The CTD has near about 56 offices situated at different places of West Bengal. All the offices arecurrently connected through traditional BSNL phone for communication. Every month CTD is payinghuge amount to BSNL as rental of phone connection.

On the other hand over last few years the CTD has also been using leased lines from BSNL for thepurpose of WAN connectivity for running of IT system and is paying substantial amount of money toBSNL against maintenance of such leased line.

CTD has introduced VoIP phone technology, in place of traditional phone for communication, tomerge the two systems together, which has saved a considerable amount of government money besidesestablishing an independent obstruction free communication system of CTD with better voice quality.VoIP works through Ethernet and every CTD office has Ethernet network connected with CTD HQ throughWAN. The government has approved this scheme of Rs. 99.18 lakh.

M/S Gurusons Communications Pvt Ltd. has been selected as vendor following a tender processthrough WTL. The system is already functioning w.e.f 31-07-2014.

Earlier we had 120 P & T independent telephone lines that could only be given to few seniorofficials. We had a rudimentary intercom available to some officers. However, since numbers of outgoingcall lines were limited (only 8), getting a call out was difficult. With VoIP phone, not only we have anadvanced intercom system, we have installed 2 channels of PRI lines for 800 VoIP connections. Thus allof them have facility to make outgoing call and a Direct Inward Dialling (DID) number with 7122 serieshas been provided to them.

Despite the numbers of lines increasing from 120 to 800, there has been a saving of Rs. 1,60,000.00approx in monthly bill resulting in an annual saving of Rs. 19,20,000.00.

CYBER FRAUD PREVENTION CELL (CFPC)

With the introduction of web-based e-services on matters related to Commercial Taxes in WestBengal through the CTD Portal www.wbcomtax.gov.in, several cases relating to alleged cyber fraud likeidentity theft, misuse of online facilities, unauthorised access etc. started coming in from various sources.To have a specific task force for this particular type of suspected anti-revenue activities, the CYBER FRAUDPREVENTION CELL (CFPC) was created under Information Systems Division (ISD) in 2013. The cellinvestigates any such complaint received from elsewhere as well as self-generated cases and takesappropriate action with the help of outside agencies like Internet Service Providers, Mobile ServiceProviders, Police Departments, Other States' Commercial Tax Department etc., wherever necessary.

Number of cases of Cyber Fraud Prevention Cell in 2016-2017

Number of cases initiated Number of cases disposed

Complaint Received 25 Authentication pending from the end of the complainant 5

Investigation started by Investigation completed with redressal of the complaint 19CFPC on the basis of the 01database information Investigation is undergoing 02

Total 26 26

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DATA ANALYSIS WING DURING 2016-17

SOME OF THE AREAS DAW HAS PERFORMED in 2016-17

1. Introduction of feedback Module secured by password

2. Sending 2102967 mails to Dealers

3. Undertake provisional Assessment

4. PAN Correction, correction of emails and mobile contacts of dealers

5. Monitoring of Tax defaulters and return defaulters

6. Providing Regular reports and customised reports to Charges, Bureau of Investigation, IIUand other offices

7. Preparation of data and reports as required for Tax Administration

8. Compilation of Feedback from Charges and presentation at meetings and helping in planningof revenue augmentation

DAW has been created in February, 2012 under the guidance of the Commissioner as a separateunit for the sole purpose of analysis of data and for providing exception reports to the assessing officers.It has been relentless in its pursuit of excellence through MIS reporting and through its varied activities inthe realm of data harvesting.

The officers of the Directorate have been instrumental in putting the data into good use and havecollected huge revenue out of them.

Among the major activities of DAW, the following are representatives:

Exception Reports:

DAW prepares a number of exception reports to identify cases of tax evasion round the year. Somereports are periodic and some are as per requirements of the assessing or investigating officers. Thesereports are prepared to identify cases of definite evasion or closely indicative.

Feedback Module:

DAW has introduced its own webpage backed by data server for publication of the reports andcollection of case-to-case feedback on action take. The access to the module is restricted to officers onlythrough self-generated user-id and password.

Mass Mailing:

One of the break-through developments in CTD was the introduction of a powerful Mass MailingSystem, which enabled the directorate to interact over email to thousands of dealers instantly. DAW hassent more than 21 Lakh mails to varying sets of dealers for the purpose of communication regardingProvisional Assessment, Cancellation Notice, Sale-Purchase Mismatch, PAN Correction, and Migrationto GST etc. This year greater effort was given in sending mass mails to dealers for rectification of theirPAN, email and contact numbers which were a prerequisite in inclusion of the existing dealers in the newTax system of GST.

Provisional Assessment:

DAW has sent more than 57 thousand mails containing demand notices of Provisional Assessmentu/s 45 of the WBVAT Act 2003, to return defaulters who have had footprints of sales or purchases in

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returns of other dealers. These dealers were assessed following a complicated system of calculationsderived from criteria as devised by a committee.

From Q.E. 31st March, 2013, the Directorate of Commercial Taxes has been sending centralizedemails containing Notices and assessment orders under Section 45 of the WBVAT Act, 2003, to dealerswho have-

a) Made sales to other dealers during such quarter as per Annexure B Part I of return submittedby other dealers, and/or

b) Made purchases from other dealers during such quarter as per Annexure B Part II of returnsubmitted by other dealers, and/or

c) Made import using waybills during the period.

The logic followed, as approved by CCT/WB, for calculating the various parameters of such dealersbased on the data as found from the points above, is as follows:

Identification of Cancellable dealers:

DAW regularly identifies dealers who are chronic return defaulters, taxpayers defaulting 4 consecutivereturns are reported to the Charges for cancellation procedure. Progress is monitored by CCT in themonthly meetings. This has helped in cleansing of dormant dealers and in 2016-17 15332 of them werecancelled of which 4132 dealers have been cancelled centrally by DAW for not rectifying their PAN inthe database. Out of the cancelled dealers, registrations of 87 dealers have been cancelled ab-initio forgetting registration by means of falsified documents or information. Charges and other anti-evasion wingsare fed with the data of ITC claimed by the beneficiaries from these dealers for subsequent legal actionsfor recovery of the lost revenue. During 2016-17, such unlawful claim of ITC by the beneficiaries stood at64.70 Crore.

Sale Purchase Mismatch exercise:

DAW was instrumental in conducting the entire Sale-Purchase mismatch exercise for the FY 2013-14 and 2014-15, which helped the charges realize considerable amount of revenue. DAW also wentforward with analysis of the reconciled data and interacted with officers of the entire state to explain andreport on the database. This mismatch information constitutes one of the bases for selection of SpecialAudit.

Audit Selection:

Based on criteria approved by CCT/WB, DAW helped in selection of dealers for VAT Audit and isresponsible for publishing in the website and circulation of the selection list to Charge and Circles. Theentire process of audit selection takes place with active help from Central Audit Unit (CAU) and under theguidance of Addl. Commissioner of CAU. In 2016-17, 2623 dealers had been selected for VAT Audit forthe accounting year 2014-15.

Special Audit:

Special Audit is the mechanism of audit of an assessee for one or two specific purposes. Under directionsof the Commissioner, 25919 for 13-14 and 33138 for 14-15 dealers had been selected by DAW based onintelligent criteria agreed upon by the Commissioner.

Assessment Helper:

DAW is responsible for criteria-based selection of dealers who were liable to be assessed on variousgrounds. Working on the data, officers had very little difficulty in finding out whether a dealer is to beassessed or not, being relieved of the arduous task of going through returns manually.

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Monitoring of claims of concessional sale:

DAW has been instrumental in monitoring claims of concessional sales and stock transfers bydealers and their subsequent uploading of declaration forms to the effect. DAW regularly sent updatedreports to charges which helped them to monitor the dealers effectively.

Alert mails:

Data Analysis Wing sends Alert Mails to officers on a regular basis whenever a dealer deviatessignificantly from the normal activities, intimating them on a possible revenue leakage. In most cases,prompt action by the concerned office has prevented substantial leakage of revenue, thanks to AlertMails.

Towards GST Preparedness:

DAW has contributed towards framing of GST ecosystem by providing financial data to theEmpowered Committee, GST Council and to State Finance Department required for policy formulation.These data has helped the State in bargaining State's demand in respect of division of tax payers betweenthe States and the Union and also to develop revenue sharing model. The support of fact based backenddata has helped the State's legitimate claims on strong footing. Officers of DAW have also been developedas Master Trainers for GST and GST Network and contributed towards training the personnel of theDirectorate as well as outreaching the taxpayers for their inclusion in the new tax ecosystem.

The year wise achievements of DAW are provided in following Charts:

COMPARATIVE REPORT ON PERFORMANCES OF DATA ANALYSIS WING IN2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 & 2016-17

Data Analysis Wing as revenue generator

1. COLLECTION FROM DAW REPORTS AS REPORTED BY CHARGE/BOI/IIU (Rs. in Crore)

2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

1 Collection from Mismatch as 31.44 10.82 59.43 9.31reported by Charges

2 Collection from Mismatch online 1.01 5.93 9.68 9.02

3 Collection by Charges from Other 6.35 131.35 50.79 204.97reports of DAW

4 Collection by Bureau of Investigation 0.45 10.14 163.46 .34Unit - I from DAW Reports

5 Collection by Bureau of Investigation 1.34 7.01 1.92 N.AUnit - II from DAW Reports

6 Collection by Bureau of Investigation 0 0.79 22.17 N.AUnit - III from DAW Reports

7 Collection by IIU from DAW Reports 0 1.74 15.23 21.25

8 Collection from Special Audit on 0 17.01 18.03 68.71Mismatch and other reports

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9 Ab-initio Cancellation 0 0 8.35 N.A

10 Refund disallowed on account N.A N.A 1.88 43.21of Mismatch

11 Refund disallowed on account ofab-initio cancelled dealers 3.46

TOTAL: 40.59 184.79 354.40 356.81

2. COLLECTION FROM MASS MAILING

2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

Mail Sent Countof

ReturnsFiled

Amount Countof

ReturnsFiled

Amountin

Crore

Countof

Returns/cases

Amountin

Crore

Countof

Returns/cases

Amountin

Crore

1 Provisional Assessment 6274 77.45 13598 138.57 40312 492.50 39004 486.98

2 Cancellation Notice 1836 9.04 0 0 0 0 0 0

3 Notice for Blocking ofTax carried forward tonext financial year 5784 47.53 0 0 0 0 0 0

4 Notice to defaulters, 0 0 N.A 502.85 14496 503.22 6600 419.41low tax payers and high (Total (addi- (addi-ITC Carry Forward for tax tional tionalrevenue augmentation Collection) tax taxin March/Holding of realised) realised)High Stock

5 Notice for payment of 0 0 0 0 4215 11.28 0Interest for 13-14 & 14-15

6 Notice for payment for 0 0 0 0 600 4.78 0non-uploading ofCST Forms

7 CST paid by CSTreturn defaulters noticedated 22/02/16 854 10.03 0

9 Output Tax anomaly02/03/16 138 1.26 0

TOTAL: 134.02 641.42 1023.07 906.39

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3. REPORT ON MASS-MAILING

No of Mails Sent

Notices 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

1 Notice for March Payment 246340 220243 234724 238158

2 Notice for Mismatch Reconciliation 58230 108884 161320 415206

3 Provisional Assessment 5752 41209 55545 57619

4 Notice for PAN Mismatch 41793 21305 64487 1275976

5 Cancellation Notice to Defaulters/ 14627 3497 0 17484 PAN Mismatch

6 Notice for uploading correct email id 119 145518 0 0

7 CST Form upload notice 7258 0 52918 97838

8 Notice to dealers who filed revised return 264 0 0 0changing ITC C/F

9 Notice for short payment of taxes 0 2081 0 0

10 Notice for filing of returns prior to Prov. Asst. 0 8889 0 686

11 Updation of PT Enrolment 0 225914 218262 0

12 Notice for updation of Assessed Dues 0 64702 0 0

13 Notice to defaulters, low tax payers and 0 31573 0 0high ITC Carry Forward for revenueaugmentation in March

14 Notice to dealers of CD on Group 0 475 0 0re-allotment

15 Notice to pay Professional Tax 0 0 263605 0

16 Notice to reconcile difference in Output Tax 0 0 2363 0

17 Notice for payment of Interest 0 0 2419 0

18 Notice to CST Return Defaulters 0 0 2796 0

19 Notice to OT Nil and Composite dealers 0 0 1148 0

20 Notice to Assessed Dues 0 0 3520 0

21 Notice to tax defaulters 0 0 732 0

22 Notice to Return Defaulters 0 0 64577 0

23 Notice to dealers holding high stock 0 0 9966 0

TOTAL : 374383 874290 1138382 2102967

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STATISTICAL INFORMATION on e-SERVICES for the Year 2016-17

E-RETURN

The first online service introduced by the Directorate was electronic filing of Return. The systemwas introduced w.e.f. Q.E. 31/12/2007 (to be filed from 01/01/2008 onwards) with a small number of4518 big and selected dealers. Gradually more and more number of dealers was selected from time totime and each dealer was communicated of his selection through post indicating his User-id and Passwordfor accessing the system. From Q.E. 31/3/2010 (to be filed from 01/04/2010 onwards) all the registereddealers (even the dealers under composition scheme) are required to file online Returns.

Electronic filing of Returns under WBST Act has been introduced w.e.f Q.E. 30.06.2011.

Electronic filing of Return has also been introduced in Profession Tax from the quarter ending31/12/2009.

According to the amendment made to WBVAT Rules, 2005, through Notification No. 1024-FT,dated 21.07.2016, all registered dealers filing return in Form 14/14D/15/15R having turnover of sales orcontractual transfer price or both in the immediate previous year, i.e., 2015-16, in excess of rupees fiftylakhs or having registration under the Companies Act, 1956, or the Companies Act, 2013, shall have tofurnish return using DIGITAL SIGNATURE mandatorily from quarter ending 30th June, 2016, in terms ofamended rule 34A(3) of WBVAT Rules, 2005.

Quarter wise total No. of Returns submitted by dealers under different Acts for four quarters: 2016-17

Name Form Return Quarter-wise Total no of Returns submitted Annual Total No.of type Submission Total of revised

Act Type Returnssubmitted

201606 201609 201612 201703 (all 4 qtrs.)

CST 1 WITH DSC 57819 59092 59859 58638 235408 10004WITHOUT DSC 107455 107916 106448 98699 420518 13609Total 165274 167008 166307 157337 655926 23613

VAT 14 WITH DSC 82992 85537 87049 87671 343249 33465WITHOUT DSC 176574 177887 175806 162794 693061 49013Total 259566 263424 262855 250465 1036310 82478

VAT 14D WITH DSC 0WITHOUT DSC 103 109 110 95 417 34Total 103 109 110 95 417 34

VAT 15 WITH DSC 0 0WITHOUT DSC 39817 40289 40047 38543 158696 3822Total 39817 40289 40047 38543 158696 3822

VAT #15R WITH DSC 0 0WITHOUT DSC 15282 15282 135Total 15282 15282 135

WBST 25 WITH DSC 328 338 325 221 1212 39WITHOUT DSC 921 898 829 510 3158 86

Total 1249 1236 1154 731 4370 125

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ELECTRONIC PAYMENT OF TAX

E-payment of Commercial Taxes was made effective from May, 2008. However, the transition hadnot been very speedy as the number of Banks authorized to accept deposits in e-mode were only three.After long deliberation although Reserve Bank conveyed approval to give authority to all the willingPublic Sector Banks to accept e-payments of Commercial Taxes, AG/WB did not agree to enhance thenumber of Agency Banks on reconciliation issues.

A remarkable progress has been achieved in case of e-Payment of Tax after introduction of thecentralized portal of Finance Department for receiving of Govt. receipts - GRIPS (Government ReceiptPortal System) from November, 2012.

20 Banks (17 Public Sector Banks and 3 Private Sector Banks) are currently accepting all kinds ofpayments of Commercial Taxes of West Bengal electronically through GRIPS ---

1. State Bank of India, 2. United Bank of India, 3. Central Bank of India, 4. Allahabad Bank5. Bank of Baroda, 6. Oriental Bank of 7. UCO Bank, 8.Bank of India

Commerce9. Indian Overseas Bank 10. Canara Bank 11. IDBI Bank, 12. Punjab National Bank13. Union Bank of India 14. Vijaya Bank 15. ICICI Bank 16. Axis Bank17. HDFC Bank 18. Bank of Maharashtra 19.Indian Bank 20. Corporation Bank

Since payment through GRIPS has been made compulsory for all e-Payments of Commercial Taxes,the Directorate is receiving e-Payment figures of all banks after reconciliation by RBI through a singlewindow (GRIPS) on daily basis. Dealers making e-Payment through GRIPS have been exempted fromsubmitting physical copies of the challans to the respective offices.

From January, 2013 another system namely 'Over the Counter (OTC) Payment' has been introducedin GRIPS to reduce the number of manual payments done at the different counters of bank branches. Inthis system, a tax payer has to generate challan electronically from the GRIPS after giving all the detailsrelated to challan and submit the print out of such electronically generated challan physically to the bankcounter. Presently following 11 Banks are participating in OTC Payment system of GRIPS -

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1. State Bank of India, 2. United Bank of India, 3. Union Bank of India, 4. Bank of Baroda, 5. Indian Bank,6. UCO Bank, 7. Indian Overseas Bank, 8. IDBI Bank, 9. ICICI Bank, 10. Axis Bank, 11. HDFC Bank.

The Efforts made by the Directorate to make all types of payment (e-Payment & manual payment)compulsory through GRIPS have witnessed tremendous success.

Total e-payment vis-à-vis total Collection during the last five year (in Rupees Crore) (All taxes & Cessincluded)

Year e-payment (in Rs. Crore) Total Collection (in Rs. Crore) e-payment as percentageof total collection

2012-13 16591.08 22185.59 74.78 %

2013-14 21866.10 25329.76 86.33 %

2014-15 26213.29 27525.01 95.23%

2015-16 29382.70 29858.67 98.41%

2016-17 31898.21 31898.21 100%

DEMATERIALISATION OF CENTRAL FORMS

The citizen-centric nature of administration of the Directorate entered into a new era when thefacilities for online application for the issue of CST related Declaration Forms/ Certificates and onlineapplication for the issue of Way Bill were offered to selected dealers from the beginning of 2009. It wasthereafter considered to provide a more improved e-service in this respect so that the dealers are notrequired to make any electronic application and can themselves generate and print 'C' & 'F' Formsagainst inter-State purchases and / or stock transfer once they file the periodic Returns under the CST Act.

Thus, the dealers have been allowed the facility of generating and printing the 'C' and 'F' Forms on andfrom 01/07/2010, in dematerialized form through the Directorate's website in respect of transactionsmade with effect from 01/04/2010. The dealers have to file their Returns electronically and file the papercopy of Returns, where required, in the concerned Charge / Corporate Division in order to be able togenerate and print the Forms. The printed forms are to be stamped and signed by the dealers themselves

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and need not be endorsed by any authority of the Commercial Taxes Directorate.

Around 4.99 Lakh 'C' Forms and 94 thousand 'F' Forms have been generated by registered dealersrespectively, in dematerialized form in the year 2016-17. The graph above gives a comparative picture ofvolume of dematerialized forms generated by the dealers over a period of five years.

DEMATERIALISATION OF WAYBILL

Electronic system of issuance of Way Bills was introduced on and from 1st December, 2010.Since then, a huge number of dealers have been benefitted. It is needless to mention that Way Bills areneeded for import of taxable goods in West Bengal. Before introduction of this new system of dematerializedWay Bill, a dealer or a person intending to import taxable goods in the State had to procure press-printedWay Bill from the respective Charge Office/ Central Section on paper-application or to file an onlineapplication for issue of the press-printed Way Bill in Form 50. The Way Bills thus obtained had to befilled in and had to be produced at the entry-point checkpost for endorsement by the concerned CommercialTaxes authorities.

Under the new system, the Way Bill in Form 50A is generated and printed from the Directorate'swebsite by the importing registered dealers after furnishing the required particulars. The generation ismade in two parts. The Way Bill key no(s) is generated by the consignee himself using his User-ID andPassword and the Way Bill in form-50 is generated either by the consignee or by any person authorizedby him (consignor/ transporter/ agent etc) by using the Key No. Provision has also been made in thesystem for transshipment during the movement of the goods vehicle.

The new Way Bills in Form 50A generated electronically in dematerialized form is not required tobe presented before any checkpost or Range Office for endorsement. However, where a goods vehicletransporting the goods is intercepted by any officer of the Commercial Taxes Directorate at any place inWest Bengal, the transporter has to produce the Way Bill before the intercepting officer of the CommercialTaxes Directorate. With the introduction of the system of online generation of Way Bills, issue of press-printed Way Bills in Form 50 to registered dealers has been discontinued except in certain circumstances.

In the year 2013-14 the Directorate started to extend the facility of online Waybill Generation tothe unregistered dealers and persons. In total, 7821 nos of unregistered e-Waybills have been generatedduring the year 2016-17 with import value worth Rs. 435.92 Crore.

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A total of 31,98,168 WAYBILLs (in form 50 A) have been generated and utilized by those dealerstaking total import value to the tune of Rs. 2,73,563.23 crore throughout in the financial year 2016-17.The Waybill generation and corresponding value of the imported items for five years have been showngraphically below: -

DEMATERIALISATION OF TRANSIT DECLARATION

Another important e-service that has been introduced in November, 2010 is dematerialization ofTransit Declaration.

When a vehicle carrying taxable goods comes from any place outside the State of West Bengaland is bound for any other place outside the State, that is to say, when the consignment passes throughthe State, the transporter is required to make a declaration that the consignment of goods, the details ofwhich are given by him, are being carried / will be carried from one State to another State through WestBengal and no portion of the consignment of goods shall be unloaded within West Bengal for any purposeother than the purpose of shipment for export and that the said goods will not be delivered or sold inWest Bengal.

Before introduction of the online systems, a transporter intending to carry taxable goods throughWest Bengal had to make paper declaration before the authorities of the entry-point checkpost forcountersignature, carry the same along with other documents during the movement of the vehicle in theState and produce the countersigned declaration to the authorities of exit-point checkpost for necessaryendorsement before leaving the State.

In the new electronic system of Transit Declaration which has come into effect from 15th November,2010 in place of the old system of manual declaration at the entry-point checkpost a transporter has tosubmit information and make the declaration online through the link provided in the website of theDirectorate for generation of the Transit Declaration. On successful submission of the information, aTransit Declaration is generated with a unique Transit Declaration Number. The transporter gets a print ofit, signs on the same and the TD is carried by the driver of the goods vehicle before entry in West Bengaland throughout his journey till exit from the State. The TD so generated, printed and signed is not required

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to be produced before any authority of a checkpost for countersignature or endorsement. However, theTD is needed to be produced before the officer of Commercial Taxes Directorate, if the vehicle is interceptedat any place in West Bengal. The transporter has to submit an utilisation statement electronically throughthe website within seven days after exit of the vehicle from West Bengal.

Around 12.46 Lakh Transit Declarations have been generated in dematerialized state in the year2016-17 of which about 8.87 Lakh declarations have been utilized. Valuable information on movementof goods in the course of inter-State trade/ transfer is now captured.

e-TD generation and corresponding utilization of the generated e-TDs over a period of five yearsare shown graphically below:

34. PROFESSION TAX WING

Since August 2014, Profession Tax administration is web-application based. No significant work,apart from identifying the cases of tax evasion, is done in manual process. In 2015-16, the Profession Taxadministration has been merged with the mainstream Commercial Tax administration. These two thingshave changed the scenario significantly benefiting the tax payers in respect of time and cost of compliance.

Presently enrolment, registration & amendment (with surrender of enrolment/registration records),generation of identification number for Government offices, filing of return, payment of tax (in systemguided manner), generation of payment certificate are carried out by the tax payers themselves throughthe website www.wbprofessiontax.gov.in. There exists a little scope of the officials to intervene theseprocesses. As such, people can get these works done from the comfort of home. Any procedural ortechnical issues relating to these e-services are taken care of promptly by the response group in ProfessionTax Headquarters. The well equipped and dedicated Help Desk in the Headquarters plays effective rolein removing the hardship, of any kind, faced by a tax-payer. Regular monitoring of tax payers, upgradation,maintenance, rationalization (according to situations) of the e-services are performed by the Headquarters.The Professional Tax web-site has been accorded the status, by the Ministry of Communications andInformation technology, Government of India as a 'GIGW compliant' web-site. Further, the e-servicesincorporated in the web-site have been appreciated in various forums for these being user-friendly,systematic and efficient.

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Apart from technical aspects, the Profession Tax has marked remarkable achievement in completingthe due assessment cases within a short span of time, thus paving a way in cleaning the useless recordsfrom the data-base for more efficient e-Governance. Further, frequent camps/surveys from the end ofeither the charge offices or the Headquarters have been proved to be useful in creating awareness forcompliance among the targeted class of persons. Publications of notices in the widely circulated newspapershave also been effective in dissimilating the instructions and information from the Directorate.

The provision for Profession Tax Payment Certificates are being followed by most of themunicipalities across the state while granting renewal of trade license etc, following continues persuasionof the Headquarters. This has helped a lot in the increase of enrolment mainly from the district and sub-divisional towns.

35. INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

Infrastructural Development work of Sales Tax Directorate throughout West Bengal has taken agreat shape during recent years. Besides the already functioning 4th Building within Sales Tax Complex,Beliaghata, new office buildings at Bankura, Office, Guest House and Godown with parking facility forintercepted vehicles for Durgapur Range and a multi-storeyed office at Howrah are almost complete. Firefighting equipments are installed so that at the time of emergency preventive measures can be taken.Special care is taken for rennovating toilets of this Directorate. Repairing & renovation and painting of allthe buildings within Sales Tax Compound are done. To strenghten safety and vigilance, procurement andinstallation of CCTV at Beliaghata building has also been sanctioned by Government. The table belowenlists status of some schemes for which funds have been released and utilized in 2016-17.

Sl No. Name of The scheme Fund released in 2016-17 Fund utilized Achievement

1 Construction of 4th building at Rs.50,000/- (Civil) G.O. Full Work doneBeliaghata Complex No. 631(S)-FT dt 14.12.16Rs.24,45,90,942, G.O No. 729(S)- & Rs.63,000/- (Elec) G.O.FT dt 18-11-14 No. 511(S)-FT dt 26-09-16

2 Annual Maintenance of electrical Rs.19,01,531/- G.O. Full Doneinstallation of Annex Bldg-III, No. 226(S)-FT dt 29-03-17Beliaghata

3 Installation of internal wiring and R.15,65,503/- G.O. Work in progressluminaries in toilet blocks inside No. 17(S)-FT dt 10.01.17Main Building, Annex Bldg-I & II,Beliaghata

4 Construction of Office Building at Rs.54,46,307/- G.O. No. Full Near completion,Bankura Office Revised 180(S)-FT dt 14-03-17 & possession to beRs.16863147/- (Civil), G.O. No. Rs.49,31,574/- (Elect) taken287(S)-FT dt 24-05-16 G.O. No. 349(S) FT

dt 29-06-16

5 Construction of Office-cum-Guest Rs.16,15,454/- G.O. No. Full Near completionHouse, Parking Place for loaded 401(S)-FT dt 03-08-16 but parking spacetrucks, godown for seized goods yet to be completedfor Durgapur Range OfficeRs.2,41,50,000/- G.O. No.147(S)-FT dt 07-03-12 & Cost ofelectrification and allied works ofOffice Building and Guest House,Durgapur Range (Rs.69,57,200/-)

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6 Construction of Multi storeyed Rs.4,70,00,000/- G.O. No. Rs.3,60,00,000/- Near completion,building at Howrah 478(S)-FT dt 05-09-16 possession notRs.16,51,16,712/- G.O. No. 401 yet taken(S_-FT dt 02-07-15

7 Electrical installation and allied Rs. 2 crore vide G.O. No. Full Almost completework in the newly constructedoffice building at HowrahRs.6,20,18,908/- G.O. No. 586(S)-FT dt 21-09-15

8 Repair and renovation work of toilet Rs.50,000/- G.O. No. Full Doneblocks in Beliaghata Office 186(S)-FT dt 16-03-17Rs.1,30,50,136/- G.O. No.721(S)-FTdt 23-12-15

9 Expenditure towards the cost Rs.4,04,146/ G.O. No. 04 Full Donerefilling of fire extinguishers in the (S)-FT dt05-01-17Main Bldg, Annex Building-I & II,Beliaghata

10 Expenditure towards the cost Rs.66,57,966/-, G.O No. Full Works to berefilling of special repair & painting 591(S)-FT dt 24-11-16 completedof internal rooms and corridors of2nd floor of Main Bldg, AnnexBuilding-I & II, Beliaghata

11 Expenditure towards the fixing of Rs. 10,89,048/-G.O. No. Work donetimers & burst proof capacitors at 350(S)-FT dt 05-07-16different buildings at Beliaghata.Rs. 10,89,048/-G.O. No. 350(S)-FTdt 05-07-16

12 Procurement installation of CCTV Rs.35,67,759/- G.O. No. In progressat Beliaghata STB 183(S)-FT dt 15-03-17

36. COMMODITY WISE RATE OF TAX UNDER VAT and WBST ACT (updated till 02.05.2015)

Please click on the following link to see the rate of tax of different commodities:

http://wbcomtax.nic.in/Act_Rule_Schedule_Form/Commodity-wise_Rate_of_Tax_as_of_20150502.pdf

37. COMMODITY NAME WITH CODES

Please click on the following link to see the rate of tax of different commodities:

http://wbcomtax.nic.in/Act_Rule_Schedule_Form/Commodity_Codes_with_Name.pdf

38. The West Bengal State Tax on Professions, Trades, Callings and Employments Act,1979 effective from 1-4-2014

(Ref. Notification No 440-L.- 11th March, 2014 read with Notification No. 848- F.T.- 28thMay, 2014 and

Notification No. 682-L dt.28th July, 2016 read with Notification No. 1197-FT dt.16thAugust, 2016.)

THE SCHEDULE

(See sub-section (2) of section 3.)Please click on the following link to see the P.Tax Schedule

http://wbcomtax.nic.in/Ptax-Schedule-New_(w.e.f._1-4-2014).pdf

Sl No. Name of The scheme Fund released in 2016-17 Fund utilized Achievement

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39. CONTACT NUMBER OF OFFICES OF THE DIRECTORATE

(a)Sales Tax Circle and Charge offices

Circles (Code) Charges Code Head Quarters Phone No. / VoIP No.[VoIP no.]

1 Corporate Corporate Division 20 14, Beliaghata Road, 033-22516815,22519578Division (01) Kolkata - 700 015 71221180

2 Burrabazar (02) 1 Chinabazar 24 do 71221228

[71221219] 2 Monoharkatra 25 do 71221233

3 N S Road 26 do 71221242

4 Rajakatra 27 do 71221249

5 Strand Road 28 do 71221258

3 Kolkata 6 Ballygunge 39 do 71221279

(South) (04) 7 Beliaghata 40 do 71221295

[71221265] 8 Bhabanipur 41 do 71221305

9 New Market 42 do 71221318

10 Park Street 43 do 71221325

11 Taltala 44 do 71221337

4 Chowringhee 12 Esplanade 45 do 71221356

(05) 13 Fairley Place 46 do 71221364

[71221346] 14 Lal Bazar 47 do 71221371

15 Lyons Range 48 do 71221378

16 N D Sarani 49 do 71221385

17 Radhabazar 50 do 71221390

5 Dharmatala 18 Amratala 51 do 71221406

(06) 19 Armenian Street 52 do 71221413

[71221396] 20 Bowbazar 53 do 71221419

21 Chandney Chawk 54 do 71221427

22 College Street 55 do 71221435

23 Colootola 56 do 71221442

24 Ezra Street 57 do 71221449

25 Princep Street 58 do 71221460

26 Sealdah 59 do 71221467

6 Kolkata 27 Beadon Street 29 Salt Lake, (North) (03) 71221586Kolkata - 700091

[71221606] 28 Burtola 31 do 71221638

29 Jorabagan 33 do 71221656

30 Jorasanko 34 do 71221621

31 Manicktola 35 do 71221601

32 Postabazar 36 do 71221615

33 Shyambazar 37 do 71221633

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7 24 Parganas 34 Barasat 65 82/5, K N C Road, 71221842(08) Barasat, 24 Pgs (N)

[7122-1557] 35 Barrackpore 66 50, B T Road, Barrackpore, 24 Pgs (N) 71221844

36 Belgachhia 30 Salt Lake, Kolkata - 70009171221662

37 Cossipore 32 do 71221647

38 Salt Lake 67 do 71221592

39 Ultadanga 38 do 71221626

8 Behala (07) 40 Alipore 60 Industrial Complex 71221739[71221732] Building, Chowrasta,

Behala

41 Baruipur 61 Baruipur, , 24 Pgs(S) 71221840

42 Behala 62 Industrial Complex 71221747Building, Chowrasta,Behala

43 Budge Budge 63 do 71221757

44 Diamond Harbour 64 New Town, Diamond 71222000Harbour, 24 Pgs (S)

9 Howrah (09) 45 Howrah 68 24, Belilious Road, Howrah 71221859

[71221851] 46 Kadamtala 69 do 71221866

47 Shibpur 70 do 71221873

10 Bally (10) 48 Bally 71 do 71221886

[7122-1879] 49 Salkia 72 do 71221890

50 Srirampur 73 Srirampur, Court 71221846Compound, Hooghly

11 Medinipur (15) 51 Medinipur 84 Medinipur, Head P.O. 71222027[71222026] Road, Rajabazar

52 Tamluk 85 Daharpur, Tamluk 71222029

12 Asansol (11) 53 Asansol 74 Court Road, Asansol, 71222002[71222001] Bardhaman

54 Purulia 75 Nadiha, Purulia 71222004

13 Durgapur (13) 55 Bankura 78 Bankura 71222010

[71222015] 56 Bardhaman 79 Kalna Road, Badamtala, 71222012Bardhaman

57 Durgapur 80 Commercial Estate, 71222016City Centre, Durgapur-9(W.B.)

58 Suri 81 Santrapara, Near S.P.More, 71222018Culvert, Suri, Birbhum


84


14 Baharampur 59 Baharampur 76 Bimal Sinha Road, 71222006(12) Commercial Complex,[71222005] Baharampur, Murshidabad

60 Krishnanagar 77 Roypara, Krishnanagar, 71222008Nadia

15 Siliguri (17) 61 Darjeeling 90 Ajit Mansion, Chowrasta, 71222041[71222038] Mal., Darjeeling

62 Siliguri 89 Jajodia Market, 1st Floor, 71222039Station Feeder Road,Siliguri, Darjeeling

16 Raiganj (16) 63 Balurghat 86 Old Sub-jail Market 71222031[71222034] Complex, Balurghat

64 Malda 87 Rabindra Avenue, Malda 71222032

65 Raiganj 88 Raiganj Super Market 71222035

17 Jalpaiguri (14) 66 Cooch Behar 82 Near Sagar Dighi, 71222020[71222022] Cooch Behar

67 Jalpaiguri 83 Treasury Building, 3rd Floor 71222023

(b) Sales Tax Ranges

Sl. No. Range Name Office Address District Phone No.( VOIP)

1 Siliguri Ashram Para Nazrul Sarani Bye Lane Siliguri Darjeeling 0353-2432792 (Fax)/VOIP No.2099 to 21032108 to 21122249 to 2266

2 Purulia Bhatbandh, Purulia Purulia 03252-222763/VOIP NO:2080 to 2083

3 Alipurduar Buxa Feeder Road, Jalpaiguri Jalpaiguri 03564-255592 (Fax)/VOIP No:2042 to 2045

4 Rampurhat Nishindapur, Rampurhat, Birbhum Birbhum 03461-255236/VOIP No:2095 to 2098

5 Raiganj Sudarshanpur (near Siliguri More), Raiganj Uttar 03523-253075 (Fax)/Dinajpur VOIP No:2088 to 2091

6 Kharagpur Rupnarayanpur (N.H.6) Jakpur, Kharagpur Medinipur 03222-291567, 228100 Fax)/West VOIP NO:2067 to 2071

7 Durgapur City Centre, Durgapur Bardhaman 0343-2547380/VOIP NO:2063 to 2066

8 Barrackpore 60, Barrack Road, Barrackpore 24-Parganas 033-25940980 /(N) VOIP NO:1963 to 1967

9 Howrah 493B/3, G.T.Road(S), Nilachal Apartment, Howrah 033-26503979/1st Floor, Shibpur, Howrah-711102 VOIP:1775 to 1779


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(c) Sales Tax Check posts

1 Barobisha 03564 - 263261/ Jalpaiguri AlipurduarVOIP NO:2046 to 2047

2 Birpara 03563 - 266827/VOIP NO:2051 to 2052 -do-

3 Jaigaon 03566 - 263321/VOIP NO:2053 to 2054 -do-

4 Baxirhat 03582 - 263220/ Cooch BeharVOIP No:2048 to 2050

5 Chas More 03252280396/ Purulia PuruliaVOIP NO:2086 to 2087

6 Berma 03252280396/VOIP NO:2084 to 2085 do

7 Chichira 03221264280/ Medinipur KharagpurVOIP NO:2072 to 2074 West

8 Sonakonia VOIP NO:2077 to 2079

9 Duburdih 0341 - 2520044/ Bardhaman Asansol CircleVOIP NO:2055 to 2057

10 Phansidewa More 0353 - 2450770/ Darjeeling SiliguriVOIP NO:2106 to 2107

11 Melli 0353 - 2215142/ -do-VOIP NO:2104 to 2105

12 Dalkhola 03525 - 255304/ Uttar RaiganjVOIP NO:2092 to 2094 Dinajpur

13 Dumdum Airport 033 - 25110582/ 24 Parganas -VOIP NO:1976 to 1977 ( N )

14 N S Dock 033 - 24390618/ -do- -VOIP NO:1978 to 1979

15 Haldia Dock 03224-251939 Medinipur KharagpurEast

40. Email Addresses of key Officials of the Directorate

Sl no Designation E-mail address

1 Commissioner, Commercial Taxes [email protected]

2 Special Commissioner 1, Commercial Taxes [email protected]

3 Special Commissioner 2, Commercial Taxes [email protected]

4 Additional Commissioner, PRO [email protected]

5 Additional Commissioner, ISD [email protected]

6 Special Officer, Bureau of Investigation [email protected]

7 Additional Commissioner, Law Section [email protected]

Sl. No. Checkpost Phone No. District Range

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8 Additional Commissioner, Central Audit Unit [email protected]

9 Additional Commissioner, Corporate Division [email protected]

10 Additional Commissioner, Verification Cell [email protected]

11 Additional Commissioner, Collection Cell [email protected]

12 Additional Commissioner, Central Section [email protected]

13 Additional Commissioner, Preventive Wing, Central Section [email protected]

14 Additional Commissioner, Refund Cell [email protected]

15 Additional Commissioner, Special Cell [email protected]

16 Additional Commissioner, Profession Tax [email protected]

17 Additional Commissioner, Fund & Budget [email protected]

18 Additional Commissioner, Accommodation Cell [email protected]

19 Additional Commissioner, Building & Infrastructure [email protected]

20 Additional Commissioner, Enforcement Wing [email protected]

21 Additional Commissioner, Internal Audit Wing [email protected]

22 Additional Commissioner, Dharmatala Circle [email protected]

23 Additional Commissioner, Burrabazar Circle [email protected]

24 Additional Commissioner, Chowringhee Circle [email protected]

25 Additional Commissioner, Kolkata (South) Circle [email protected]

26 Additional Commissioner, Kolkata (North) Circle [email protected]

27 Additional Commissioner, 24-Parganas Circle [email protected]

28 Additional Commissioner, Behala Circle [email protected]

29 Additional Commissioner, Howrah Circle [email protected]

30 Additional Commissioner, Bally Circle [email protected]

31 Additional Commissioner, Siliguri Circle [email protected]

32 Additional Commissioner, Jalpaiguri Circle [email protected]

33 Additional Commissioner, Raiganj Circle [email protected]

34 Additional Commissioner, Durgapur Circle [email protected]

35 Additional Commissioner, Asansol Circle [email protected]

36 Additional Commissioner, Baharampur Circle [email protected]

37 Additional Commissioner, Medinipur Circle [email protected]

38 Additional Commissioner, Taxation Tribunal [email protected]

39 Senior Joint Commissioner, Dharmatala Circle, Admin [email protected]

40 Senior Joint Commissioner, Dharmatala Circle, Appeal [email protected]

41 Senior Joint Commissioner, Burrabazar Circle, Admin [email protected]

42 Senior Joint Commissioner, Burrabazar Circle, Appeal [email protected]

43 Senior Joint Commissioner, Chowringhee Circle, Admin [email protected]

44 Senior Joint Commissioner, Chowringhee Circle, Appeal [email protected]

45 Senior Joint Commissioner, Kolkata South Circle, Admin [email protected]

46 Senior Joint Commissioner, Kolkata South Circle, Appeal [email protected]

47 Senior Joint Commissioner, Kolkata North Circle, Admin [email protected]

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48 Senior Joint Commissioner, Kolkata North Circle, Appeal [email protected]

49 Senior Joint Commissioner, 24-Pargana Circle, Admin [email protected]

50 Senior Joint Commissioner, 24-Pargana Circle, Appeal [email protected]

51 Senior Joint Commissioner, Behala Circle, Admin [email protected]

52 Senior Joint Commissioner, Behala Circle, Appeal [email protected]

53 Senior Joint Commissioner, Howrah Circle, Admin [email protected]

54 Senior Joint Commissioner, Howrah Circle, Appeal [email protected]

55 Senior Joint Commissioner, Bally Circle, Admin [email protected]

56 Senior Joint Commissioner, Bally Circle, Appeal [email protected]

57 Senior Joint Commissioner, Baharampur Circle, Admin [email protected]

58 Senior Joint Commissioner, Baharampur Circle, Appeal [email protected]

59 Senior Joint Commissioner, Jalpaiguri Circle, Admin [email protected]

60 Senior Joint Commissioner, Jalpaiguri Circle, Appeal [email protected]

61 Senior Joint Commissioner, Raigunj Circle, Admin [email protected]

62 Senior Joint Commissioner, Raigunj Circle, Appeal [email protected]

63 Senior Joint Commissioner, Asansol Circle, Admin [email protected]

64 Senior Joint Commissioner, Asansol Circle, Appeal [email protected]

65 Senior Joint Commissioner, Durgapur Circle, Admin [email protected]

66 Senior Joint Commissioner, Durgapur Circle, Appeal [email protected]

67 Senior Joint Commissioner, Siliguri Circle, Admin [email protected]

68 Senior Joint Commissioner, Siliguri Circle, Appeal [email protected]

69 Senior Joint Commissioner, Medinipur Circle, Admin [email protected]

70 Senior Joint Commissioner, Medinipur Circle, Appeal [email protected]

71 Senior Joint Commissioner, Head Quarter [email protected]

72 Senior Joint Commissioner, Central Section (Preventive) [email protected]

73 Senior Joint Commissioner, Central Section (Investigation) [email protected]

74 Senior Joint Commissioner, ISD [email protected]

75 Senior Joint Commissioner, Central Audit Unit [email protected]

76 Senior Joint Commissioner, Central Registration Unit [email protected]

77 Senior Joint Commissioner, ITC Cell [email protected]

78 Senior Joint Commissioner, Law Section [email protected]

79 Senior Joint Commissioner, Bureau of Investigation [email protected]

80 Senior Joint Commissioner, Refund Cell [email protected]

81 STDS Cell [email protected]

82 Helpdesk [email protected]

83 P.A. to Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, WB [email protected]

84 Profession Tax Query [email protected]

41. E-mail Addresses (By name)To see email address of the officers by name follow the link:

http://www.wbcomtax.gov.in/contacts/email.pdf