In a bid to tighten the noose on the Value Added Tax (VAT) defaulters, Haryana Excise and Taxation department on raided the premises of a firm here.

A team led by Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner (East) Gurgaon raided the premises of the firm located in Udyog Vihar Phase-I of the city following a complaint at the department's headquarter in Chandigarh.
The complaint was forwarded by Excise and Taxation Commissioner Shyamal Mishra to the DETC (East) for enquiry and verification.

According to DETC (East) Samir Yadav, the firm registered in the name of one Subodh Gupta had raised a bill of Rs 2,54,53,125, including VAT of Rs 29,53,125, for selling a painting to Director, National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi in August last year.

The price of the painting was Rs 2.25 crore But on checking the records at Director General of Audits, it was found that the seller firm had neither shown the VAT amount in its quarterly returns nor deposited the VAT with the government.

A notice was served but the firm failed to respond, so the premises of the firm was raided on Tuesday, Yadav said.

As per rules, if a firm fails to deposit VAT and it is proved, then it had to not only deposit the entire amount of VAT evaded but also fine along with it.

The move by Excise and Taxation department came following directions by Minister Capt Abhimanyu, who is said to be not happy with the tax recovery of the department.

According to Yadav, a noted cars designer and customiser, was also found to be not filing VAT returns for last one year.

He was caught and an amount of Rs 22 lakh was recovered from him as tax and fine, he said.

Similarly, an agency of Ford motor company here was also found to be not filing VAT returns for last one year and an amount of Rs 2.50 crore was recovered from it, Yadav said.