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Mamata government creates DRI&E to tackle tax evasion, leakage of revenue
Kolkata, Feb 23 (IANS) In a bid to tackle the menace of tax evasion and leakage of state revenue in an efficient manner, the West Bengal government has created its own new Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Enforcement (DRI&E), an official said on Saturday.
“A new Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Enforcement under the Finance Department has been created for a comprehensive approach to investigation and enforcement of tax laws for tackling the menace of tax evasion and leakage of state revenue in a more efficient and effective manner,” the official said.
The state government has been considering restructuring the indirect tax administration to counter revenue leakage and tax evasion through intensive and broad-based investigation and enforcement with multifaceted approach.
The agency will be headed by a Director from the IAS cadre, as may be appointed by the state government.
The investigation teams and field officers in the agency to deal with tax evasion cases would be manned mainly by the West Bengal Revenue Service officers and other officials from other revenue directorates.
The agency will have jurisdiction throughout the state to make enquiries and undertake investigations about cases of tax evasion and enforcement relating to various acts including state GST, Value Added Tax, Sales Tax, Agricultural Income Tax, Stamp Duty Act, Lotteries Act and many others.
It will have several wings and cells, including administrative, investigation, prosecution wings along with law cell and IT and vigilance wing.
Incidentally, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to initiate an independent probe into the IL&FS financial debacle.
In her letter, Banerjee mentioned that IL&FS faced a debt crisis to the tune of alarming Rs 91,000 crore putting at peril the hard-earned savings of lakhs of employees of the PSUs as well as private sector companies by way of uncertainty over provident and pension funds invested in the IL&FS bonds by their employers.
“These grave financial irregularities, which have continued unabated under the Union government, have placed financial security of the people at even graver danger. Demonetisation and hasty and unplanned implementation of GST took away livelihood of common people. Now IL&FS financial debacle is taking away their savings,” she said in her letter.
She urged Prime Minister to “kindly initiate a high-level impartial and independent probe into the sordid affairs of financial impropriety and possible misappropriation of the life savings of common people due to the IL&FS fiasco”.
–IANS
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International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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