HYDERABAD: Commercial Taxes Minister Talasani Srinivasa Yadav said Tuesday that all the big jewellery shops in the city were under the government scanner.
“Commercial Taxes officials are auditing the accounts of these jewellery shops. We found that Khazana jewellery shop has done a business of Rs 12 crore and want them to pay the tax. They have already paid Rs 1.8 crore. Likewise, the auditing is going on for Kalyan jewellers,” he said. He said politicians, realtors and big businessmen were not taking bills when they were purchasing jewellery. That was why the sales were not shown in the records of jewellery shops and the government was losing taxes, he explained.
He said they were contemplating a hike in VAT from one per cent to five on sales of jewellery by big shops. Speaking to reporters after a review meeting at the Secretariat, he also said seven check-posts would be fully operationalised on the Andhra-Telangana border in two-three months. The check-posts would come up at Kodada, Vishnupuram and Paloncha in Khammam district and Kalluru, Aswaraopet at Tungabhadra. Tenders were called for constructing rooms, erecting scanners and the check-posts would be given to private persons on lease basis, he disclosed.
Two more integrated check-posts would also come up at Bhoraj in Adilabad district and Saluru in Nizamabad district. These two would be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 80 crore.