Chandigarh, Sep 12 (PTI) Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Monday said the enforcement wing of the taxation department has registered a 63.7 per cent increase in the recovery of goods and services tax.

He said a sum of Rs 101.38 crore has been recovered in the last five months of the current financial year against Rs 61.92 crore recovered during the same period last fiscal.

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In a statement here, Cheema said the Bhagwant Mann-led government has adopted a supportive approach towards honest taxpayers and efforts are being made to resolve their grievances at the earliest.

On the other hand, strict measures are being taken against tax evaders, he added.

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The minister further said significant progress has also been achieved in goods-in-transit cases.

The enforcement wing has so far imposed a penalty in 3,191 goods-in-transit cases resulting in revenue generation of Rs 90.40 crore in this fiscal as compared to 2,235 cases involving revenue of Rs 61.80 crore during the same period in the last fiscal.

Taxation Commissioner, Kamal Kishor Yadavsaid the better coordination between the state and central GST authorities has resulted in swift investigation of the enforcement cases.

He said that the department was earlier short of vehicles but now, the government has sanctioned more vehicles for the enforcement wings for better outreach to curb tax evasion in every nook and corner of the state.

"The department is planning to institute a tax intelligence unit at Patiala to curb big tax evaders, besides planning to buy more advanced technical and analytical tools for identification of bogus taxpayers to secure the revenue of the state", Yadav informed.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)