At a meeting of Punjab-based Small Plywood Manufacturers held in Jalandhar presided by Mr. Gurpreet Kataria, and it was decided that their members would sell Plywood with e-way bill only, and the decision of 10% rates increased at the previous meeting would be strictly followed. They also met Punjab Tax officials and demanded that E-billing be made compulsory from the very first rupee. This will increase government revenue as well, and the manufacturers will also be happy.
The manufacturers have written a memorandum to the authorities and concerned Ministers of the Government of Punjab and Government of India as well and requested for e-way billing to be made compulsory for every transaction on plywood instead of billing for fifty thousand and above.
They brought to the notice that GST on plywood is 18% and e-way bill is a must for the value of on or above rupees 50,000.00 (fifty thousand only). But if material is sold for rupees 42000 plus GST 18%, it totals to 49560 for which e-way is not required and the bill can be deleted once the material has reached the buyer.
This is causing a huge loss of revenue to the government as the bulk buyers are being asked to supply in the below e-way bill category and send in multiple fragmented supplies in small vehicles. They said that this also leads to a big problem for plywood factories as the customers do not want to buy truck loads, thus involving the manufacturers in wrong practises.
They also informed that there are around 3000 plus plywood factories in India and around 200 factories in Punjab, ranging from 1 crore to 100 crores in turnover. With this, it has been calculated that the revenue will be doubled by a minimum and may also increase by 4–5 times with the implementation of the E-way bill on every transition, irrespective of the amount of purchase. The biggest number of plywood industries is in Haryana, where the transport mafia exists and is very active.
They charge Rs 1 per kg as corruption money to evade tax. Further, plywood is coming without bill from J&K and Haryana in Punjab because of no border barriers since GST has been implemented. The manufactures also request to start border checking. This will lead to great revenue generation for Punjab.