The UT Excise and Taxation Department will now hold Value Added Tax (VAT) advisory committee meetings on quarterly basis.

It was announced by the Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner (AETC) Ravinder Kaushik, during an interaction with the officials of the department and members of Chandigarh Beopar Mandal (CBM) held in Sector 35 on Friday.

Over 100 traders along with all officials of the UT Excise and Taxation Department attended the meeting that saw discussions on VAT-related issues.

RK Gupta, the chairman of the CBM VAT sub-committee, appealed to the authorities that a lenient view be taken while doing inspections and conducting raids on business premises of traders during the forthcoming festival season.

CBM chief patron Diwakar Sahoonja said the president of the market association concerned should be allowed to be present during raids or searches conducted by the department.

Kaushik assured that e-payment of taxes with all nationalised banks would be started within 10 days and VAT advisory committee meeting would be convened soon. Thereafter, the meetings would be held quarterly. He also announced rewarding highest VAT payees in different categories.

Prominent CBM members present in the meeting included Sat Pal Gupta, BK Sood, Purshottam Mahajan, Anil Vohra, Jagdish Kapoor and Kamaljit Singh Panchi. — TNS