A kachori seller in the city of Aligarh in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is currently under the taxman’s lens.

The reason? He apparently has an annual turnover of Rs 60-70 lakh, if not more, but does not Goods and Services Tax (GST) registration.

Any businessman in India with an annual income of Rs 40 lakh or more has to pay GST. To do that, they would have to be registered to make such a payment, and have a unique GST number.

The kachori seller in question, Mukesh Kumar, does not even have GST registration, and therefore has not paid GST either.

Crorepati kachori seller?

The matter came to light when the Special Investigating Branch (SIB) of the Commercial Tax Department (Aligarh range) received a complaint from Lucknow against the shop.

Kumar, it emerged, had been running the shop near Seema Talkies in Aligarh for 10-12 years.

The SIB determined that the shop was doing brisk business, and only then got a warrant to conduct a raid there.

“We had to search for the outlet. We initially conducted a recce by watching the turnout of customers at different timings. After making an assessment, we got a search warrant on June 21,” Commercial Tax (Aligarh range) Deputy Commissioner Ravindra Pal Singh Kauntiye was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

“During the survey, the seller himself gave out the details which indicated that his turnover was in lakhs of rupees,” he added.

[Representational image] | Picture credit: Creative Commons

Unpaid GST

Assessment of the premises and the materials and equipment used to make kachoris reportedly revealed that Kumar might be a “crorepati!”

However, he has now apparently agreed to pay GST on the goods he sells. “We have issued notice to Mukesh who has expressed readiness to have GST registration,” said Kauntiye.

Explaining the current GST laws, he said: “Till March 31, businessmen having a turnover above Rs 20 lakh were required to have registration for the goods and services tax (GST) but from April 1, the limit has gone up to Rs 40 lakh.

He added: “This kachori seller, despite having a high turnover, had no GST registration.”

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