Daily wage labourer in Kothagudem gets recovery notice for Rs 22.86 lakh GST dues

The labourer, Janapati Venkateswarlu, a couple of days ago received DRC-7 notice issued on March 4 sent to his residential address house number: 4-14, Temple Street, Chandrugonda in the district through post.

Kothagudem: A daily wage labourer in the district had a rude shock as he received a demand notice from commercial tax office, Vijayawada, for recovery of unpaid GST dues from.

The labourer, Janapati Venkateswarlu, a couple of days ago received DRC-7 notice issued on March 4 sent to his residential address house number: 4-14, Temple Street, Chandrugonda in the district through post.

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The notice was issued to Bhagya Laxmi Enterprise located at house number: 60-12-5, Siddhartha Nagar, SBI Colony, Vijayawada, a registered taxpayer with GSTIN: 37CKKPV6641Q1Z0, for tax dues worth Rs 22.86 lakh, which includes tax, penalty and interest. The tax period was 2022-23.

Venkateswarlu, an illiterate living in a tin shed, was shocked to find the letter and its contents with the help of some educated locals. Speaking to the media he said that he received a phone call from an officer asking him to clear the tax dues for the business he did for the period mentioned in the notice.

When he told the officer that he has nothing to do with the said business the officer advised him to lodge a police complaint. On March 12 along with friends the labourer went to Vijayawada to find out about Bhagya Laxmi Enterprise and learnt that there was no office in the given address.

Moreover, when he went to a mee-Seva centre to apply for a PAN card the centre operator told him that a PAN card had already been issued in his name on September 22, 2024. How a trading license was issued to Venkateswarlu without his knowledge, why a labourer needed a PAN card and who used his name for getting a trading license are the questions that remain to be answered.