Fmr RTO says ‘Tpt Commr owes answer’, latter mum
Bivek Mathur
JAMMU, Feb 17: Notwithstanding the fact that the J&K Government has adopted a zero-tolerance policy for corruption in whatsoever form, why a Government official who has caused “crores’ losses” to the State exchequer by issuing manipulated GRs/Passenger Tax Passbooks for collection of passenger tax from motor vehicle owners while remaining posted in RTO office Jammu, is being shielded?
While the then RTO Jammu, Ghansham Singh, who made the Transport Commissioner, Jammu and Kashmir, Rahul Sharma, aware about the losses through an intimation vide his office letter number RTO/ PA/2022/MVD/500-501 dated November 28, 2022, said all he could do was to bring in the matter to his senior official’s notice, Transport Commissioner, Rahul Sharma preferred not to answer the questions of the Excelsior regarding the reasons for not transferring the matter to ACB, CBI or any other investigating agencies.
“I had the entire matter shared with the Transport Commissioner, Jammu and Kashmir. Only the latter could now answer as to why the case of the Government official, who caused crores’ losses to the State exchequer by issuing manipulated Government Receipts (GRs)/Passenger Tax Passbooks for collection of passenger tax between April 1, 2018 to June 30, 2022, is not being handed over to the investigating agencies,” Ghansham Singh, the former RTO Jammu, who is now posted as ADC Udhampur told the Excelsior.
This scribe asked similar questions to the Transport Commissioner, Rahul Sharma, as well, but the latter disconnected the call soon after hearing the questions. Later, several attempts were made by the Excelsior through phone calls and text messages to get a reply from the IAS officer but all the efforts failed. This scribe also went to the office of the Transport Commissioner, Jammu and Kashmir, to meet him in person to get a reply but the latter refused to meet claiming he was in a meeting.
Pertinently, the case pertains to issuance of manipulated GRs/Passenger Tax Passbooks between April 1, 2018 to June 30, 2022 for collection of passenger tax from the motor vehicle owners during the tenure of a Government employee, who was posted in the passenger tax section of the then RTO Office, Jammu, who has been now attached in the office of ARTO Samba vide Transport Commissioner office order number 76 TC of 2022 dated October 31, 2022.
As per then RTO Jammu communication addressed to Transport Commissioner, Jammu and Kashmir, the administration of the J&K passenger Tax Act 1963 was transferred from the State Taxes Department to the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) vide Government order number 146-FD of 2018 dated March 27, 2018.
Hence, then RTO wrote to the Transport Commissioner, that the recovery of the passenger tax arrears was also transferred to the employees of the MVD in online mode.
However, he wrote, “the passenger tax arrears were deposited by the motor vehicle owners in the RTO office Jammu between April 1, 2018 to June 30, 2022 in the offline mode against the GRs and the Passenger Tax Passbooks authenticated by the cashiers posted in the office during the said period”.
He further wrote to the Transport Commissioner that the online generation of the passenger tax receipts was started from April 1, 2022 and updation of the passenger tax receipts received through offline mode between April 1, 2018 to June 30, 2022 from August 1, 2022, on the basis of the GRs and the Passenger Tax Passbooks authentication process.
“During this process, some manipulated GRs/Passenger Tax Passbooks were pointed out by the cashier Sumit Magotra and Accounts Assistant Rajat Chib, and accordingly, the matter was taken up with the RTO Jammu through office letter number RTOJ/Accts/2022-23/441-42 dated October 20, 2022,” read the then RTO Jammu’s communication addressed to the Transport Commissioner, Jammu and Kashmir, on November 28, 2022.
Accordingly, the then RTO Jammu, Ghansham Singh wrote in his communication that several measures were taken to straight the record including the vehicle-wise updation of the details of the passenger tax deposited during the period on the basis of counterfoils of GRs, cash book in the available form and also the remittance register manipulated in the accounts section of the then RTO office Jammu which was made the basis for further updation and the same is continuing after November 1, 2022.
In order to rule out the possibility of some more manipulated receipts or false authenticated passbooks issued in the past having been accounted for higher amount during the updation and clearance process between August 1, 2022 to October 31, 2022, the then RTO wrote in his communication addressed to the Transport Commissioner that several other measures were also taken by the then RTO Jammu staff.
To validate his claim that the State exchequer suffered losses worth crores, the then RTO Jammu has also compared the arrears/passenger tax recovered from motor vehicle owners between 2018-19 upto 2021-22 with the passenger tax received only in the 8 months of 2023.
For instance, he has mentioned that in 2018-19, Rs 30.03 lakh passenger tax was deposited by the motor vehicle owners in the RTO Jammu office, Rs 1.04 crore in 2019-20, Rs 29.767 lakh in 2020-21, and Rs 2.193 crores in 2021-22 against a whopping amount of Rs 4.53 crores deposited only in the first eight months of the year 2023.
“During the 8 months, Rs 4.53 crores were deposited as compared to the Rs 2.193 crores during the entire financial year of 2021-22. The increase of the tax arrears realized/recovered during the first 8 months of this financial year are Rs 2.34 crore more than the tax recovered during the full financial year, which is 105% increase in the tax realized,” Ghansham Singh, the then RTO Jammu wrote to the Transport Commissioner.
In his communication, he has further written that the additional Rs 2.34 crores were generated due to an aggressive tax focussed enforcement drive launched under his (then RTO Jammu’s) supervision for checking of vehicles on the Jammu-Udhampur-Ramban NH, Jammu-Akhnoor-Rajouri-Poonch Highway, and Jammu-Samba Kathua Highway.
In this drive, he said an amount of Rs 1.05 crore was generated only in October 2022, which was higher than the amount generated during several previous years together.
“As far as instances of manipulated GRs authenticated by the cashier as also authentication of false entries on the passenger tax passbooks produced by the motor vehicle owners, while updating the data”, the then RTO further wrote to the Transport Commissioner: “the role of the transporters, motor vehicle owners in collusion with the cashier posted during the specific period cannot be ruled out, which is a matter of further enquiry and investigation at an appropriate time.”
The then RTO Jammu also wrote that the timely detection and pointing out of manipulated GRs/passenger tax passbooks by present cashier Sumit Magotra and Accounts Assistant Rajab Chib have prevented a big loss to the state exchequer.
“Had this been not brought into the notice by the cashier and Accounts Assistant, the wrong and continued updation with higher figure may have resulted into crores of loss to the State exchequer in future, which due to the timely action, has been prevented.
“But this is not enough, the concered officers viz. RTO, ARTO (HQ) and Accounts Officer needs to keep strict and continued watch upon the passenger tax counter and monitor it on daily basis till such time complete updation of all the vehicles is completed”, Ghansham Singh, then RTO wrote in his communication.
“To add more, the process needs to be further streamlined for ensuring that there do not remains any scope for manipulation, and evasion of the passenger tax which can be only possible after adoption of vehicle-wise proper accounting and assessment on regular intervals as may be decided by the Government.
“This will bring all the vehicle owners into the tax net, some of which may have not even paid any tax during the last five years. They will also be identified and tracked,” he wrote further in his communication addressed to the Transport Commissioner, Jammu and Kashmir.
Now, the larger question remains: despite knowing that a Government official has caused crores of losses to the State exchequer and that the employee has also been attached in ARTO Samba office, why an enquiry by a top investigating agency is not bringing to the fore the truth in the case? Who is shielding the accused?
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