CHANDIGARH, JULY 19: The Central Excise Commissionerate-II, has been awarded the "Saman Patra" for the year 1998-99 for outstanding contribution in generating revenue. Besides, two officers and eight other staff members of the commissionerate were awarded citations for their individual performance in revenue collection and administrative matters.The awards, introduced in the 1998-99 budget speech, were presented by the Union Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, at at an investiture ceremony held in New Delhi.Excise Commissioner Inder Raj Soni said that for the year 1998-99, the commissionerate had collected a revenue of Rs 855.64 crore against a target of Rs 815 crore, an increase of 28 per cent from the previous year's collection.The commissionerate has a jurisdiction over the state of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab (excluding districts of Ropar, Patiala, Ludhiana and Fategarh). He added that a revenue target of Rs 1,106 crore has been allocated to the commissionerate for 1999-2000, out of which Rs 239 crore had been collected till June. Evasion of duty worth Rs 139 crore has also been detected, so far.`Oppose Jain' `In a letter to Samata Party President and Union Defence Minister George Fernandes, the Chandigarh Pradesh Samata Party urged Fernandes to oppose the candidature of former BJP MP Satyapal Jain should he seek his party's ticket for re-election.Noting that although the Samata party is a constitutent of the ruling alliance at the Centre, Jain had "never bothered to contact the Chandigarh unit of the Samata Party in the last parliamentary election, at the time of the election to the Municipal Corporation, or otherwise". The statement accused Jain of speaking against the Samata Party and siding with corrupt officials of the UT Administration. The letter was signed by all local Samata Party office bearers.
