DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Punjab Finance, Planning, Excise and Taxation Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema on Monday said that the Enforcement Wing (State GST) of the Taxation Department has registered an increase of 63.7 percent with the recovery of Rs 101.38 Crore in the first five months of the current financial year against Rs 61.92 Crore recovered during the same period last year. Revealing this, the Excise and Taxation Minister said that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government has adopted a supportive approach towards honest taxpayers and efforts are being made to resolve their grievances at the earliest. On the other hand, strict measures are being taken against tax evaders. Disclosing more details about the key reforms introduced in this fiscal, Advocate Cheema said that the Taxation department has been undertaking various activities to make people aware about timely payment of GST. "The enforcement wing has so far recovered Rs 11 Cr in inspections alone with the help of field recce and data mining. During the same period in last year, department could recover Rs 4.67 lacs only", he added. The minister further mentioned that significant progress has also been achieved in goods in transit cases as the Enforcement Wing has remained more vigilant towards unscrupulous tax evaders. He informed that the Enforcement Wing has so far penalised 3191 cases of goods in transit resulting into revenue generation of Rs 90.40 Crore in this fiscal as compared to 2235 cases involving revenue of Rs 61.80 Crore during the same period in last fiscal. Meanwhile, Kamal Kishor Yadav, Taxation Commissioner, informed that the better coordination between State and Central GST Authorities have resulted in swift investigation of Enforcement cases. He said that the Department was earlier short of vehicles but now, the Government has sanctioned more vehicles for Enforcement Wings for better outreach to curb tax evasion in every nook and corner of the state. "The Department is planning to institute a Tax Intelligence Unit at Head Office, Patiala to curb the big evaders besides planning to buy more advanced technical and analytical tools for identification of bogus taxpayers at the very beginning to secure the revenue of the State", Yadav informed. (editor@dailyworld.in)