Latest news with #GIDC
Time of India
12-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
GIDC bought survey instruments for Rs 1.5 crore without checks: CAG
Panaji: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has observed irregularities in the purchase of drones and other instruments by Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) for Rs 1.5 crore, noting that the process lacked any quality assurance. The CAG said that a loss of GST input credit amounting to Rs 20.4 lakh has been incurred by GIDC in the purchase. The CAG stated that GIDC entered into an MoU with the directorate of settlement and land records (DSLR) to survey and map all its industrial plots/lands, using 20 field surveyors from the DSLR. The equipment was procured by GIDC. The instruments had to be handed over to the DSLR by GIDC, in lieu of payment. An estimate of Rs 1.5 crore was approved in March 2023 for the purchase of the instruments, and a tender notice was published in April 2023 inviting bids. LI (ACE) was issued the work order for the supply of instruments for Rs 1.2 crore plus GST. The instruments and the drone were delivered. Thereafter, GIDC transferred the instruments to DSLR in Aug 2023. But the CAG said, 'GIDC did not insist on requirements of the vendor's capabilities.' In fact, the CAG said, GIDC did not have records to show the make, brand, and manufacturer's name as the supply was made by a vendor without detailing batch number, year of manufacture/import, and technical specifications. 'The possibility of faulty, defective, refurbished, repaired, and used products…could not be ruled out due to the lack of basic documentation and quality checks,' the CAG said.
Time of India
27-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
CAG finds irregularities in Invest Goa 2024 spending
Panaji: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has observed irregularities in the expenditure of Rs 3 crore in organising the Invest Goa 2024 event by the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC). Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The CAG said that the GIDC awarded the event to an ineligible bidder, resulting in the loss of GST input credit of Rs 45 lakh. The CAG said that the GIDC decided on Jan 14, 2024, to organise the one-day Invest Goa 2024 event in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Investment Promotion Board at an estimated cost of Rs 3 crore. This decision was post facto approved on Jan 20, 2024, by the board. The event involved hosting 400-500 delegates to showcase Goa as an investment destination and to attract investments, create jobs, and spur economic development in the state. Accordingly, a request for proposal (RFP) was floated on Jan 16, 2024, under the Quality and Cost-Based Selection (QCBS) method, in which three bidders participated. Only one bidder, Bandodkar Hospitality Pvt Ltd (BHPL), qualified for the next stage. The financial bid of Rs 3.3 crore, inclusive of GST, was negotiated to Rs 3 crore, and the work was awarded on Jan 24, 2024, to BHPL. The event took place on Jan 29, 2024, and the vendor was paid Rs 3 crore in Feb 2024. A CAG officer said that the irregularities were noticed during the audit. The CAG noted that although the RFP had 76 line items describing the requirements under venue, catering, branding, transportation, etc., the money value was not estimated. The board was requested to approve a lump sum of Rs 3 crore for holding the event without any breakdown or indicative costs for each line item. Moreover, several line items were vague and ambiguous, such as the absence of specifications for the selection of the venue, the number of special invitees for the gala dinner, and the need for arranging food for 600 guests for an event with 400-500 delegates. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now 'This was not in conformity with Rule 136(1) of General Financial Rules, which mandated the preparation of detailed specifications and estimates before the commencement of works,' the CAG observed. 'There was no justification placed on record to explain the unjustified hurry to complete the tendering process and hold the event at such short notice.' The CAG added, 'The unjustified speed of the process adversely affected participation and competition in the tendering process, which was not in the financial interest of the GIDC.' The CAG said, 'Three bidders (Axis Communications or AXIS, BHPL, and Cas Ant Events Pvt Ltd or CAEPL participated, of which CAEPL had not submitted documentary evidence in the technical bid and was disqualified.' The two remaining bidders (AXIS and BHPL) were given marks of 60 and 95, respectively, out of a maximum of 100, the CAG said. It added, 'Since a technical score of 70 or above was required to open the financial bid, the financial bid of BHPL alone was opened…although AXIS had superior capabilities in terms of turnover, employee count, experience, etc.' Though the marks were awarded by a three-member committee, the scores given by individual members were not on record, the CAG said. 'All the above indicated that the tendering process was not transparent and competitive to safeguard the interest of the GIDC,' the CAG said. The CAG said that although the basic eligibility criteria were an 'average annual turnover' of Rs 2 crore over the past three years (2020-21 to 2022-23), the CA certificate furnished by BHPL was for an 'aggregate turnover for three years' of Rs 2 crore. 'Despite this ineligibility, the bidder was not disqualified, thereby vitiating the entire tender process,' CAG said. 'Overall, the tendering process and awarding of work to an ineligible bidder lacked transparency, and there was no proper documentation on the execution of the work.' Further, the GIDC did not take action on the loss of GST input credit of over Rs 45 lakh, the CAG said, adding that the reply of the management was awaited.
Time of India
25-06-2025
- Time of India
5 booked for forging land papers to evade 2.7cr in excise duty
Surat: Pandesara police booked five persons on Tuesday for allegedly forging property documents to evade Rs 2.71 crore in excise duty. The accused allegedly forged a sale deed and other documents for a Pandesara GIDC plot, subsequently obtaining permission for an export business based on these falsified papers. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The persons, all from the same family, face charges of cheating, forgery, conspiracy and criminal intimidation. Pradip Thakordas Chahwala (58), the complainant, runs a provision store in Surat. His father, Thakordas Chahwala, leased Plot 367 in Pandesara GIDC from the Gujarat govt in 1975 and set up a chemical unit. Thakordas died in Mumbai in 1996. In 2006, Pradip received a notice from the central excise department indicating that his father had evaded Rs. 2.71 crore in excise for the Simran Exports firm. On inquiry, officials showed him a power of attorney for the GIDC plot and an occupancy receipt. Pradip also discovered a sale deed dated 2002. He identified the documents as fake as they bore the signature of one Thakordas Shah, not his father. The investigation revealed that Kishorilal Juneja and his brother Mohanlal Juneja had fabricated the documents in their favour. Additionally, their third brother, Ajit Juneja, created a fake partnership deed with Thakordas. Pradip filed a complaint with the Surat police commissioner in 2010 for cheating and forgery. In 2022, while constructing a compound wall on his plot, two accused, Amit Juneja and Kamal Juneja, objected to the construction, claiming ownership of the land without presenting any ownership documents. They allegedly abused and threatened Pradip during the encounter. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Pradip submitted two more complaints to the Surat police commissioner in 2022 and 2024, accompanied by supporting documents. Based on these submissions, Pandesara police booked all five accused under IPC Sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120B and 504.
Business Recorder
20-06-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Meeting the water scarcity threat
EDITORIAL: For a problem of such scale as funding mega storage dams to deal with India's water aggression, slapping a 1 percent tax on every taxable product — except electricity and medicines — is not a solution; it's a panic response masquerading as policy. That this is the best the federation could come up with to counter what it itself calls an act of war — India putting the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance — only highlights how limited its strategic thinking really is. The core issue isn't just about funding dams. It's about the quality of the national response to a growing existential threat. And it's becoming painfully clear that there isn't enough of it. Provinces won't contribute. The federal government, despite all the alarm, has cut water sector allocations by nearly 30 percent. The IMF, understandably, won't sign off on another broad-based tax when existing public development allocations are already underused or mis-prioritised. So if the 1 percent tax goes through, the burden will fall — yet again — on the already taxed sectors of the formal economy. No mention is made of how to involve, let alone tax, the very large undocumented economy. The state's numbers don't inspire confidence either. Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams were approved in 2018. Seven years later, they still require Rs540 billion just to reach completion — and that too based on outdated cost estimates. Yet next year's budget allocates only Rs25 billion and Rs35.7 billion to them, respectively. At this pace, even the ministry of water resources admits it could take up to 20 years to finish the job. But the public is being told, without irony, that both will be completed by 2030. What's worse, the logic behind this new tax crumbles on contact with reality. The IMF has already advised the government to reprioritise within the Rs1 trillion Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) envelope instead of adding another blanket levy. But of that trillion, only Rs640 billion is actually available. The rest is tied up in road projects, provincial schemes, and politically sensitive special area allocations. Clearly, priorities are elsewhere. There is also no discussion of accountability. The Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) fiasco — where over Rs400 billion collected from the public still hasn't been deposited by private companies — hangs like a cautionary tale. It's one thing to announce a cess; it's quite another to recover and utilise it. Even the latest attempt to enforce GIDC collections, via a committee under the finance minister, is crawling along — exactly like all its predecessors. The method of legislation also raises eyebrows. Since the courts have ruled that cesses must be purpose-specific and passed via separate legislation, the government cannot route this through the Finance Act. Hence, the need for a new bill. But the timing is suspect — trying to quietly pass a new blanket tax amid ongoing IMF negotiations and budget debates, while bypassing real public discourse. And where are the provinces in all this? With the exception of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, none is willing to co-fund what are clearly national priority projects. Sindh, for instance, has gone from a reported surplus of Rs395 billion in March to suddenly projecting a Rs38.5 billion deficit — directly undermining the IMF's target of Rs1.4 trillion in combined provincial surpluses. That makes coordination not just difficult but dysfunctional. This is not how strategic planning works. When the threat is as serious as a hostile upstream neighbour weaponising water, the response cannot be ad hoc taxation, weak coordination, and creative accounting. It requires hard conversations, difficult decisions, and, above all, clarity of purpose — none of which is currently in evidence. The question, then, isn't just whether this 1 percent tax is justified. It's whether the people being asked to pay it have any reason to believe the state knows what it's doing. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Business Recorder
11-06-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Petroleum products: 26.4pc rise in PL envisaged
ISLAMABAD: The federal budget 2025-26 envisages a 26.4 percent raise in petroleum levy (PL) on petroleum products after raising its maximum limit to Rs 90 per litre from Rs 70 per litre. A significant Rs 1,468.395 billion PL on petroleum products has been budgeted for upcoming fiscal year. This represents a substantial rise of Rs 307.395 billion compared to the current revised estimates of Rs 1,161 billion for the ongoing fiscal year. It is also considerably higher than the original budgeted PL of Rs 1,281 billion for the outgoing fiscal year 2024-25. Next fiscal year's budgeted PL is Rs 158 billion higher than what was projected for next fiscal year under this head by the International Monetary Fund in its first staff-level report uploaded on its website on May 17, 2025. The projected collection is Rs 1311 billion for next fiscal year. Last 3-1/2 months of FY25: petroleum levy hike by Rs18.02 to generate Rs90bn revenue The PL revenue has been given a high priority by successive federal governments as it is not part of the Federal Divisible Pool (FDP) that has to be shared with the provinces as per the National Finance Commission (NFC) formula. A budgeted target of Rs 105 billion through imposition of a levy on Off the Grid (Captive Power Plants) has been set for next fiscal year. The National Assembly passed the 'Off the Grid (Captive Power Plants) Levy Bill, 2025'. This levy, initially 5 percent, will increase to 10 percent by July 2025, 15 percent by February 2026, and 20 percent by August 2026. The government has also proposed to increase the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) collection at Rs 2.4 billion for the next fiscal year from revised current estimates of Rs 1 billion. The GIDC was originally budgeted at an amount of Rs2.5 billion for the current fiscal. In June 2020, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that various sectors of the economy must clear outstanding Rs 407 billion GIDC in 60 months but the government has yet to realize this amount due to stay orders obtained by various companies. Natural Gas Development Surcharge (GDS) - the difference between prescribed and sale price of gas that goes to provinces - is projected to bring Rs49.437 billion next year against original budgeted Rs25.618 billion and revised Rs48 billion in the outgoing fiscal year. The government has also envisaged to collect Rs5 billion for the PL on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in next fiscal 2025-26. This is compared to the revised target of Rs 3.156 billion for the current fiscal year. The original budget for the PL on LPG in the current fiscal year was at Rs3.537 billion. The budget for fiscal year 2025-26 envisages Rs30 billion to be retained as a discount on local crude oil prices. This is higher than the revised estimate of Rs 25 billion for the current fiscal year the same as budgeted for the current year. The budget for next year proposes an increase in royalty on crude oil and increase in royalty on natural gas for provinces. The budgeted amount for royalty on crude oil is set at Rs69 billion for next financial year against the revised estimates of Rs64 billion for the outgoing year. The government budgeted Rs38 billion in royalty on natural gas in the next financial year against a revised target of Rs135 billion and budgeted Rs103.751 billion in 2024-25. Next year's budget envisages Rs20 billion on account of windfall levy on crude oil against budgeted amount of Rs 28 billion for the current financial year 2024-25. Windfall levy on gas has been budgeted at Rs 450 million which was revised estimates of Rs450 million in current fiscal year. Miscellaneous receipts of oil and gas companies are budgeted to generate Rs 1887.682 billion against a revised estimate of Rs 1464.606 billion and budgeted estimates of Rs 1528.46 billion in the outgoing financial year. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
