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| 'Fight' between Police-Commercial Tax departments makes 128 solar power plants non-functional | | Despite incurring an expenditure of Rs 9.70 crore these plants remained defunct since 2014 | | Early Times Report
jammu, Mar 27: Non-functional 128 solar power plants, installed at police establishments since 2014, reflect lack of coordination among different departments of the J&K Government.
Despite incurring an expenditure of Rs 9.70 in the year 2014 these solar plants are non-functional due to fight between Police and Commercial Tax departments of the same government.
As new latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), due to non-settlement of payment of Works Contract Tax (WCT) with the Commercial Tax Department these solar plants are still non-functional as spare-parts brought from outside J&K to make these plants functional have been impounded by the Commercial Tax Department.
As per CAG report, to ensure uninterrupted power supply in police establishments a proposal was made to provide Solar Photovoltaic Power Plants (SSPs) at 562 locations across J&K. Tender in this regard was floated by getting approval from the concerned departments. It was stated in clause 16 of the NIT, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Service Tax and Value Added Tax (VAT) was not to be applicable to this contract and would be paid extra by Police Department, if charged by State Taxes Department. The delivery, installation and commissioning of SPPs was to be completed within six months from the date of placement of the supply order. As per the terms and conditions of the supply order, the supplier was responsible for free warranty of five years for SPPs,
10 years for power output warranty for Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) modules and replacement guarantee of 20 years.
Post installment of 252 SPPs,163 were found to be non-functional which included 128 SPPs for which payment of Rs 9.70 crore had been made.
The Department directed (August 2015) the supplier to rectify the defects developed in the installed in 163 SPPs. The supplier informed (August 2015) the Department that instead of repairing old power conditioning unit of these SPPs, new power conditioning units were dispatched to Jammu and Kashmir. The material was, however, detained by the Sales Tax Department on the grounds of non-deposit of Work Contract Tax (WCT). The Department took up (February 2015 to May 2018) the matter with the Government to either release an amount of Rs. 3.80 crore on account of WCT at a rate of 10.50 per cent or for waiver off such tax.
Audit scrutiny (July 2017) of records of Director General of Police, Police Headquarters, Jammu revealed that the matter relating to WCT, however, has not been resolved even after a lapse of more than five years, and 128 SPPs have remained non-functional for which payment of Rs 9.70 crore was made up to January 2015.
The Director General of Police, Police Headquarters, Jammu in reply (June 2020) stated that the non-functional SPPs could not be repaired as spare parts were impounded by the Commercial Taxes Department for non-payment of WCT. The Department stated that all the issues shall be resolved as soon as the Government releases the WCT amount or waives it off.
Thus, failure of the Department to effectively co-ordinate and settle the issue regarding payment of WCT with the Sales Tax Department led to impounding of spare parts dispatched by the firm which resulted in non-functional SPPs. As a result, the benefits of installation and commissioning of 128 SPPs could not be availed, despite an expenditure of Rs 9.70 crore having being incurred for installation of these 128 SPPs. The matter was reported to the Government (May 2020), their reply is awaited |
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