Karnataka govt to step up audit & inspection of e-commerce players
Bengaluru (PTI): Asserting that the government will take measures to plug leakages with respect to GST collection in the state, Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil on Friday said audit and inspection of e-commerce players will be increased.
The Minister said this while piloting the Karnataka Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2023, for the consideration of the Legislative Assembly. It was subsequently passed.
"Tax payers in Karnataka during VAT era were 5,80,000, today during GST period it has increased to 10 lakh, so about 4.2 lakh taxpayers have come under the tax net. Karnataka has displayed an increasing trend in GST collection from Rs 44,816 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 81,848 crore in 2022-23. GST has immensely contributed towards an increase in our budget size and revenues," Patil said.
He said, "there is a perception that tax evasion is more in the service sector, but 56 per cent of our contribution is from the service sector."
BJP leader and former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Congress MLA Shivalinge Gowda, JD(S)' H D Revanna among others highlighted about instances of GST/tax evasion, and urged government take measures in this regard.
The Minister said, the government will take all necessary measures to plug GST leakages.
"11,733 cases were inspected last year (2022-23) Rs 1,320 crore has been collected in the form of tax penalty. This is not a small amount, but still more measures have to be taken," he said, adding that honest efforts have to be made by officials in tax collection.
Pointing out that a drive had been conducted in the state against "bogus dealers", the Minister said, 1,600 cases were detected and about Rs 90 crore ITC (input tax credit) were blocked.
There is a need to take more such measures, and the government will do it, he said, adding, "also, audit and inspection of e-commerce operators will be increased."
The Karnataka Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was introduced with an aim to overcome difficulties in the levy and collection of tax on intra-State supply of goods or services or both by the State government.
Piloting the bill for the consideration of the House, Patil said, the amendment bill will bring in 22 amendments to GST law out of which six are dealer-friendly measures and 16 are for ease for tax compliance and administrative measures.
The bill intends to include penal provisions applicable to e-commerce players in case of contravention of provisions relating to supply of goods and services made through them by unregistered persons or composition of tax payers.
The Bill also aims to decriminalise offenses by increasing the monetary threshold from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore except for offenses related to issuance of invoices without supply of goods or services or both.
The Assembly today also passed Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
The bill is to amend the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act, 1999 (Karnataka Act 29 of 2000) to enhance the amount of construction works undertaken by the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from Rs 50 lakh to Rs one crore.
Karnataka Legislature (Prevention Of Disqualification) (Amendment) bill, 2023 was also passed by the Assembly today.
This bill is to make provisions to exempt the office of Legal Advisor to the Chief Minister and office of the Special Representative of Karnataka State at New Delhi from incurring disqualification for being an MLA or MLC on such appointment.
The bill stated that the amendments shall be deemed to have been inserted with effect from May 20.
The amendment has been made following the appointment of Virajpet Congress MLA and Senior Advocate A S Ponnanna, a legal advisor to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and senior MLA T B Jayachandra as Special Representative of Karnataka State at New Delhi.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
