Two officials held for usurping tax collected from commercial vehicles

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Wednesday said it has arrested two officials of the Transport Department for allegedly usurping tax collected from commercial vehicles. Harpal Singh and Salinder Singh were collecting taxes from the vehicles entering the state through the Lalru area.

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Wednesday said it has arrested two officials of the Transport Department for allegedly usurping tax collected from commercial vehicles. Harpal Singh and Salinder Singh were collecting taxes from the vehicles entering the state through the Lalru area. A spokesperson of the Bureau said around 2,000 commercial vehicles enter Punjab every day.

These vehicles have to pay tax for entering or passing through Punjab, which could be paid online by the driver or owner of the vehicle concerned or deposited with the staff posted at the said check-post.

Harpal Singh, Salinder Singh and Praveen Kumar were posed at a check-post at Jharmari of Mohali district on rotational basis.

They were supposed to collect tax after filling the requisite details, including registration number and type of the vehicle, in the e-Parivahan software of the department.

However, these officials developed a software similar to the original one and used it to collect taxes from the commercial vehicles and generate bogus receipts for the owners or drivers of the vehicles.

The money so collected had been being pocketed by these accused, causing a loss of lakhs of rupees to the state exchequer.

''Not only this, they have also fabricated stamps/seals to be affixed on the receipts to convince the vehicle drivers or owners of the genuineness of the same,'' he added.