The hotel was fined Rs 12,500 each under CGST Act and UTGST Act for charging Rs 67.50 as tax for two bananas. (Source: File)In yet another setback for JW Marriott hotel, a team of the Chandigarh Excise and Taxation Department Wednesday imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on the hotel for possessing seven bottles of liquor without a hologram.
UT Excise and Taxation Department stated that the Sales and Stock register and Inspection notebook was not produced at the time of inspection. “However, it was produced later on during the proceedings before the Collector and it was found that registers were not authenticated,” the findings of the hearing stated.
The department also mentioned, “Two brands of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) were in the possession of the licensee which are not approved by the department for the current policy year, but the brands purchased by the hotel in the year 2012 and 2017 when the same was registered by the department. However, the hotel has been directed to either to get the approval for the labels/brands as per clause 10 of the Excise Policy, 2019-20 or destroy the liquor as per the Punjab Excise Act, 1914.
The inspection was conducted ten days ago, sometime after the five-star hotel was penalized Rs 25,000 for charging GST on two bananas that actor Rahul Bose ordered post a workout session. The department said that it was an illegal collection of tax as fresh fruits are tax-free items and exempted under GST.
On July 22, Bose had put up a video on his Twitter handle sharing a copy of the receipt that the hotel sent him for two bananas that he ordered. “You have to see this to believe it. Who said fruit wasn’t harmful to your existence? Ask the wonderful folks at JW Marriott,” the actor, who was in the city for a film shoot, said in a tweet.
After the actor’s tweet, the hotel was penalized Rs 25,000 for violating Section 11 (1) of Central Goods and Service Tax Act (illegal collection of tax on an exempted item) and Section 8 of Union Territory Goods and Services Tax, Act (UTGST). The hotel was fined Rs 12,500 each under CGST Act and UTGST Act for charging Rs 67.50 as tax for two bananas.
The penalty was imposed under section 125 of the CGST Act and section 21 of the UTGST Act.
According to the excise department, not having holograms is considered to be a serious offense of the excise laws- being direct evasion of excise duties and tax. Holograms were introduced in Chandigarh in the year 2017 to check smuggling of liquor. They establish the genuineness by tracking the alcohol from the manufacturer to its point of sale. Besides, a hologram also shows a bottle’s date of manufacture, when it traveled to a retailer, and also mentions if excise duty has been paid or not.
Clause 46 of the UT Excise policy states, “Holograms/Intaglio printed security labels with holograms on packing /bottles of country liquor, Indian Made Foreign liquor and Imported Foreign liquor will be mandatory fixed by the licensee at his own expense.”
