State mafia uses railways, Telangana incurs loss of Rs 300 crore per year
Hyderabad: The Container Corporation of India (Concor), an arm of the Indian Railways, has turned out to be a major conduit of illegal goods to Telangana state. The black market mafia in the state, with links to gangs in Punjab and Haryana, has caused the state government a loss of over Rs 300 crore every year over the years by evading taxes, estimated officials.
“The goods that are being imported and illegally being distributed to various traditional markets without paying mandatory taxes,” said an official of the Enforcement Wing, Commercial Tax department.
Read: Basmati, dry fruits detained
On Thursday, over 37 rail containers of illegally transported basmati rice were detained. “We have been studying the movement of these agencies. The goods were delivered at the Container Corporation of India, Nagulpalli at Patancheru and were being loaded on vehicles; the goods did not have the essential tax documents,” said the official. He added, “When we raided and asked for the documents, the drivers simply fled the scene, leaving behind their vehicles and load. The detained goods are worth Rs 20 crore.”
The raids were carried out under the supervision of Anil Kumar, commissioner, Telan-gana Commercial Tax department and additional commissioner Revati Rohini. P. Trinadha Rao, terminal manager, Concor, Nagulapalli, confirmed, “Yes, the Commercial Tax en-forcement authorities detained the vehicle as they did not have essential documents; 37 containers that had over 20-27 tonnes of basmati rice were detained.”
Read: Train Telangana staff to use scanners, say experts
Surprisingly, these goods are booked in Concor containers and are transported to various destinations, but the Railways do not have any basic data on who books them and where they are destined.
“We don’t have to look for any documents. It is the state government’s job. The only thing we look for is whether the person who comes to take the goods has the receipt issued by the Railways,” said Mr Trinadha Rao.
