Strike called off after tax officials apologise to advocates

Ludhiana: After the ongoing tussle between taxation professionals and the state taxation department, because of which tax advocates and practitioners were on a strike since last Wednesday, the tax professionals on Tuesday evening called off their strike after the Excise and Taxation Officers (ETO) Association issued an apology letter to the former.
Taxation professionals had protested outside the office of the assistant excise and taxation commissioner (AETC), SK Garg, on Wednesday, claiming that he was not doing any of their works, and was delaying GST refunds deliberately.Shortly after this, the ETO Association issued a statement to the media against the protest and claimed the protest was staged by tax advocates to pressurise the AETC to do their unethical works, and defamatory slogans were made against Garg by the protestors. This statement by the association had angered tax professionals, who then called for a complete boycott of work inside the state taxation office in Ludhiana.
Meanwhile, the decision to call of the strike was taken by professionals after a meeting of office-bearers of the District Taxation Bar Association (DTBA) (sales tax) with high-ranking officials of the state taxation department on Tuesday evening at the department’s office in the mini secretariat. Efforts to contact the deputy excise and taxation commissioner (Ludhiana) Pawan Garg and AETC SK Garg proved futile.
Meanwhile, speaking to TOI, DTBA secretary Chander Sehgal, former president Arun Kanwal, finance secretary Gaurav Sharma and others, said: “We have called off our strike today after an apology was tendered by the ETO Association for releasing a baseless statement to the media, in which false accusations were made against us. Today’s meeting was also attended by additional excise and taxation commissioner Gurtej Singh, who has assured us that all pending works in all divisions will be completed soon, and tax-payers and tax professionals will not face any kind of problem. He has also given a time of one month to review the working of the AETC, and also assured us that the entire working in the department will be smooth.”
BOX 1
‘WE REGRET IT’, SAYS ETO BODY
The letter issued by ETO Association, which is signed by its general secretary Harjot Singh, says: “In a news published in various newspapers on 13.06.2019 in response to the strike by District Taxation Bar Association, it was mentioned that the said strike had been done to pressurise officers for getting their inappropriate works done. In this regard, it is clarified that the said wording was echoed by all the excise and taxation officers of the district Ludhiana-1 in the heat of the moment at that time, but there was no intention of alleging any bar member’s integrity, and the officers, in fact, wanted to express that in such a tense environment, any mistake could happen while disposing of revenue-related work. Nevertheless, as the sentiments of the bar members have inadvertently been hurt, therefore all excise and taxation officers of Ludhiana-1 express the deepest regrets and withdraw the said words.”
BOX 2
DTBA TOO ISSUES STATEMENT
Later in the evening, DTBA office-bearers acting president Saket Garg, former president Arun Kanwal, finance secretary Gaurav Sharma and others issued a statement to their members saying: “As you all are aware, there was a strike going on against the poor working and arrogant behaviour of AETC-1, and ETO Association Punjab came forward and stood with AETC-1 and put a false allegation that the motive of the strike was to put pressure on officers and advocates to do their illegal works.
DTBA (Sales Tax), Ludhiana took a serious note of this allegation and issued a legal notice to them and filed a complaint against them in Bar Council of Punjab and Harayana. Today, Gurtez Singh, additional excise and taxation commissioner, Punjab DETC Pawan Garg, AETC SK Garg, and office-bearer of ETO Association met bar members of DTBA (Sales Tax), Ludhiana, felt sorry, and issued a press note to that effect, giving an assurance that within one month, AETC-1 will change his working style and sort out the problems of advocates. DTBA (Sales Tax) Ludhiana is thankful to the DTBAs of Malerkotla, Faridkot, Moga, Sangrur, Hoshiarpur, and Bhatinda, who stood with us in such a difficult situation, showing the unity of tax advocates.”