No records of washer business of Gupta Coal India Ltd available – RTI reply
3 Feb, 2014An allegation was leveled in the legislative assembly of Maharashtra that the six coal washeries under Gupta Coal India Ltd. were selling the coal provided by Mahagenco in open market. The contract of the washeries was terminated for providing substandard washed coal.
When an application was filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, seeking to get the details of the transaction records of the washeries of Gupta Coal India Limited, no transaction records were found to be available. The Joint Commissioner of sales tax (VAT) stated that the vigilance wing had examined the washery business records of 2005-06 and 2008-09 for tax assessment but they found that only the names of companies were mentioned from where the coal was bought. However, no other transaction records like weighing at loading and unloading points, transport, etc. were found making it a pima facie case of tax evasion.
The RTI reply also said that the company showed papers of repurchasing the imported coal when it was already purchased and thus tried to evade tax. The applicant has alleged that the company showed larger amount of coal to be imported when the actual imported amount was much less.