Nagaland Motor Vehicles Dept failed to collect Rs 9.37 Crore in taxes: CAG

April 9, 2023 34 Views No Comment

Morung Express News
Dimapur | April 9

The latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has found that the Motor Vehicles Department of the state failed to recover outstanding motor vehicles tax from vehicle owners resulting in shortfall of tax collection to the tune of Rs 9.37 crore.

The report, which was tabled in the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) last month, stated that the department in these cases filed to invoke the provisions of Nagaland Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1967 and Nagaland Passengers and Goods Taxation Act, 1967.

It informed that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has recommended the Motor Vehicles
Department to take action against the defaulting vehicle owners as pointed out in the C&AG Audit Report for the year ended March 31, 2016. This report had said mentioned that 36,040 goods/ passenger vehicles defaulted in payment of goods and passenger tax amounting to Rs 5.64 crore and 45,631 vehicles defaulted in payment of road tax to the tune of Rs 17.25 crore.

Despite the recommendation made by the PAC, the CAG observed during the scrutiny on September 2021 of VAHAN portal in respect of the State of Nagaland that out of 1,33,377 vehicles registered under eight Regional/ District Transport Offices during 2016-21, 12,050 vehicles defaulted in payment of Motor Vehicle Tax and Goods/ Passengers Tax.

The default in payment of Motor Vehicle Tax, Goods Tax and Passenger Tax by 12,050 vehicles registered during the last five years amounted to Rs 9.37 crore as on March 31, 2021.

“This indicates that the Department failed to take action on the PAC Recommendations and also indicates that there is no mechanism in place to safeguard the State’s Own Tax Revenue,” the CAG reported.

On its part, the Department replied in October 2021 that there has been sharp decline on the tax defaulting amount due to efforts made by the Department through its enforcement agencies towards enabling vehicle owners to clear the dues.

Furthermore, the Department stated that there are many instances where vehicles that are no longer used are neither reported nor their documents updated resulting in accumulation of data of default in payment of taxes, fees, etc. The Department also assured that the default in payment of mandatory taxes shall be pursued more vigorously and addressed in accordance to the provisions of the Acts and Rules.

However, the CAG said that the Department replies “are not acceptable” as the assurance made by the Department on the issues raised in the C&AG’s Audit Report for the year ended March 31, 2016 and to the PAC was not complied.

“The Department also did not utilise the software facility meaningfully to identify the tax defaulting vehicle owners and initiated timely action to realise the outstanding tax. Due to inaction of the Department in recovery of the tax due, the vehicle owners defaulted in payment of mandatory tax of Rs 9.37 crore during April 2016 to March 2021,” the CAG said.

The audit recommended that the department make effective use of the VAHAN software for detection of tax defaulters and invoke the relevant provisions of the Acts/ rules and recover the tax dues from the defaulting vehicle owners.