PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry government has been reeling under a severe financial crunch, with over Rs 171 crore pending as sales tax dues from petrol bunks. Hoping to remedy the same, the government has launched an offensive against the defaulters. For the first time in the history of Puducherry, criminal cases have been filed in the magistrate court against six petroleum dealers who have defaulted with regard to sales tax and who have been referred to the enforcement directorate, Chennai, for action under the Money Laundering Act, 2002, for recovery of arrears.So far, the commercial taxes department, responsible for taking action against tax defaulters, has filed 74 criminal cases against the petrol bunks concerned, in the court of the judicial magistrate at Puducherry, Mahe and Karaikal, for recovery of the sales tax arrears with penalty. A total of `171,30,07,967 is due to the government from 14 petroleum bunks, each of whom has to cough up as much as `2 crore as dues. The attachment of bank accounts of the defaulting dealers has been made to recover the arrears. The details regarding immovable property of the defaulters have been called from the revenue department for initiating action under the Pondicherry Revenue Recovery Act, 1970. The government has also appointed a special government pleader at the High Court of Madras exclusively for the commercial taxes department to avoid delay in trial proceedings due to stay orders obtained from the High Court by the dealers against whom cases have been filed. In the UT of Puducherry, there are 118 petrol bunks with 78 in the Puducherry region, 17 in the Karaikal region, 16 in Mahe and seven in Yanam.
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