Chandigarh, March 28 -- Finance and taxation minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Friday announced that the taxation department has launched a large-scale, coordinated enforcement drive across Punjab to curb tobacco tax evasion, leading to the detection of unaccounted goods estimated at Rs.1.5 crore. Cheema said that following the recent increase in tax rates on tobacco products such as cigarettes, bidis, and allied items, the department received specific inputs regarding a surge in tax evasion activities within this sector. He added that acting swiftly on this intelligence, teams from four state investigation and preventive units (SIPUs) based in Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, and Jalandhar carried out simultaneous inspections at eight different locations, comprising five registered business premises and three operating entirely without registration. He said that major detections were made in Ludhiana and Amritsar, where enforcement teams put in significant efforts to identify concealed storage locations and unaccounted stock. "During the thorough inspections of both main shops and associated godowns, substantial quantities of goods were found being stored and traded without valid invoices," he said in a statement. The seized stock included approximately 1.32 lakh packs of Indian cigarettes, 18,472 packs of Indian bidis, 302 packs of zarda, 13 packets and 95 boxes of imported cigarettes, 148 pieces of foreign-made hookah material, and 13,000 lighters. The minister stated that a tax liability exceeding Rs.50 lakh, along with applicable penalties, would be firmly recovered on the detected goods as per the provisions of the law. An amount of Rs.12 lakh has already been recovered so far, and further recovery proceedings are actively underway. At a review meeting of the Punjab State Traders Commission (PSTC), Cheema said the state government was taking steps to deliver time-bound resolution of their grievances through a strict, accountable and transparent system. Reviewing 1,386 complaints and the progress of 256 meetings held across Punjab, he underlined that the government had institutionalised a structured dialogue with the trading community, enforced strict SOP compliance, and activated a three-tier PSTC framework to ensure real-time, ground-level redressal of issues while fixing clear administrative responsibility at every level. Furthermore, the meeting underscored the necessity of fixing clear administrative responsibilities at the district and sub-divisional levels for the proper management, documentation, and resolution of these issues....