Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has levelled corruption allegations against the State government over what he called its ‘reluctance’ to collect around ₹300 crore in outstanding GST payments from bar hotel owners.
He demanded the Chief Minister to order an investigation as Ministers and the political leadership were under a cloud of suspicion. Mr. Satheesan said here on Saturday that the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) had repeatedly raised in the Assembly the government’s failure to collect tax dues from the bars.
The government too had admitted to its failure in collecting the taxes, yet it had now overturned the decision to collect the outstanding amount. The government had also stopped supplying liquor to bars that had failed to pay the arrears, but this decision had also now been reportedly overturned, he said.
He alleged that the bar owners knew in advance that the government would withdraw these decisions. Reports were now coming out regarding fund collection drives by bar owners’ organisation to gain a favourable decision, pointing to massive corruption behind the decision-making. An investigation needed to be conducted to unravel the identities of those who had made monetary gains as part of this.
The State government was not keen on collecting the huge tax arrears even when mired in severe economic crisis. Checks were also not being conducted to assess accurately the turnover of the bars. The government considered the figures provided by the bar owners as its official figures. The losses sustained by the government would be even more, if this was also taken into consideration. The Finance department itself was causing a loss of crores to the exchequer through its unholy alliance with the bar owners, Mr. Satheesan alleged.
