ETC Punjab apprised of major lapse in functioning of e-TRIP

Ludhiana, July 29, 2013: A meeting of Core Committee of Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal (PPBM) held today, in which it came to light that the official website (www.pextax.com) of Punjab Excise and Taxation Department, Punjab pose a great threat to the trade of those traders (VAT dealers) who would be using it for the purpose of recently launched e-TRIP.

After the meeting was concluded, the PPBM state general secretary Sunil Mehra and secretary Mohinder Aggarwal told the media persons that the core committee took the services of cyber experts who brought the bitter and hard fact to them. They said every trader supposed to use e-TRIP would have to use his TIN Number as username. And TIN Number is easily accessible to the third party, as it is even mentioned on the bills.

Citing an example, they said suppose a person open the website and fill TIN Number of a third party (VAT dealer) then he will go to forgot password and after completing the formalities the person will be given option to give PAN Number of the dealer concerned. After mentioning PAN Number of the dealer concerned the person concerned will be able to reset or change the password of that particular VAT dealer easily. As such, the person can easily raise bills on name of that particular VAT dealer, causing a great loss to the latter.

They told that PAN Number of a dealer could be located easily, as it was available with banks, even majority of dealers who deal with Corporate Houses used to mention PAN Numbers on bills.

They told that they had already apprised Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Punjab about this major “lapse’ in department’s website.

They appealed to Deputy Chief Minister, Punjab Sukhbir Singh Badal to defer e-TRIP in the larger interest of the trade and the industry in Punjab and a direct talk between the state government and the traders’ community be held. They said the Mandal was established way back in the year 1939 and since then it was working for cause of the traders’ community.

The meeting of core committee was attended by the state president Amrit Lal Jain and other leaders namely Sunil Mehra, Mohinder Aggarwal, Pyare Lal Jain, OP Gupta, SK Wadhwa, BK Bajaj, LR Sodhi, Arun Kalia, Surinder Jain, Varinder Ratan, Surinder Duggal, Tarsem Kumar Jain, Ranjan Aggarwal and Kasturi Lal Mittal.