Shifting of Dhubri Central Excise Division to Bongaigaon resented

From a Correspondent

DHUBRI, May 30: Deep resentment prevailed among the people of Dhubri district following news of shifting the Dhubri Central Excise Division to Bongaingaon. People of the district, cutting across the political line, sent a memorandum to the Chief Commissioner Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax, Shillong recently urging him to stop the move of shifting the division to Bongaigaon.      

 In the memorandum, it was stated that people of Dhubri learnt from a reliable source that a tender notice was floated for hiring office premises in Bongaigaon to shift the Dhubri Central Excise Division by the office of the Commissioner, Central Excise, Guwahati without any reason.

“We the people of Dhubri and South Salmara districts vehemently protest against the said move as first of all, the Office of Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise and Service Tax Division is an old asset of Dhubri, which was established after independence on its own land,” the memorandum stated.

It also said that a new establishment in Bongaigaon would cause a misuse of government fund without any reason where Dhubri division was functioning from its own land and building since 1966.

On query, it was found that business activities in Dhubri were more than other adjacent districts and businessmen and traders of other districts also come here, as reported by the chartered accountants and tax consultants, as the State Vat Offices of Goalpara, Dhubri and Kokrajhar are controlled from the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Taxes, Dhubri, it was further pointed out in the memorandum.

In the memorandum, following points were also raised to justify that the move was against business interest and revenue earning would be affected by it. Dhubri is declared as one of the intertiol river ports and work of which is in progress for transportation of goods from Kolkata to Dhubri and vice versa through Bangladesh. As a result, business opportunity of revenue earnings from trading and transportation would be more. Revenue opportunity after implementation of GST would be more in Dhubri district as previewed by the tax consultants and chartered accountants.

Without having sufficient assesses in the States of Mizoram, galand, Manipur and Aruchal Pradesh; the Central Government has decided to create one commissionerate in each State where a single Range is more than enough to control. It is not understood under what circumstances, the Central Government had decided to shift Dhubri Division to Bongaigaon, though the total number of Central Excise, Service Tax and VAT assesses in Dhubri was more than the above mentioned States.

In terms of communication, the Rupshi Airport near Dhubri is going to be prepared for civil aviation. When Dhubri Division was created, at that time no telephone, fax and other modern facilities were available but it could run very smoothly with the support of all people. Now it is not understood under what circumstances it had been decided by the Central Excise Authority to shift a big divisiol office from its own building to a hired one. So, it was totally unjustified, illogical and against the norms and policy of Prime Minister rendra Modi who always insist on savings and stop misusing government funds, the memorandum further stated.