Tura, Oct 07: The budding cement industry in the state has been hailed as a revolution that would have changed the way of life for most people. However, paying taxes seems to be the least of its concerns as data shows. Star Cement, one of the biggest cement manufacturers of the North East, has not only been piggy back riding on the back of the government for tax sops, it has also been asking dealers to pay for taxes that are skewed, which in the end has been hitting the end customer as well.
The issue that comes in to the question is why is the Star Cement Company asking dealers to pay for VAT to the tune of 13.5% of the billed amount? The cement is being manufactured in Meghalaya and the dealers availing the cement are also residents of Meghalaya, which first of all registers the question as to why the VAT? Dealers have also complained that they have been shortchanged as they have to pay Rs 10 more per bag as compared to Assam when the company is based in Meghalaya. They said it does them no favour that being based in the state gives them no headway.
Next in line to the same question is if the company is using Assam as the base for distribution, then how are the customers of Meghalaya being charged VAT, where as in reality it should have been the Central Sales Tax (CST) on the sales invoice? The fact is that being an inter-state transaction, the company cannot charge VAT and needs to charge CST. For how long this underplay has been going on is anyone’s guess.
The game has been going on for a long time now and the losses suffered, by customers through increased prices, has been huge. The question doing the rounds though how has this been going on for so long with no body pointing a finger at the company and no real check on the workings of the company? The cement companies have already being accused of skewing the fragile ecological balance of the place. Taking advantage of the tax laws is now a new finger in the pie.(SP News)
