The Finance Department today said that the news report regarding purported disparity in tax collection published in a Jammu-based English daily on 19 January 2018 seems to be outcome of the utter lack of knowledge on part of the reporter about the tax collection mechanism in the State.Responding to the news report, a Finance Department spokesman said that the tax collection in Jammu is on the higher side for the obvious fact that the bulk of the taxes being levied on goods transported to every part of the State including Kashmir and Ladakh under the erstwhile VAT regime is collected in the winter capital.Enumerating, he said, the Lakhanpur collection point for entry tax and toll is in Jammu so all such taxes are being collected in Jammu. “Similarly, all the Motor Spirit Taxation (MST) offices are located in Jammu so the entire tax on spirits is collected in Jammu only. Similarly, the depots of all FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) and other companies, excepting two, are located in Jammu, and therefore they are depositing the first point tax under VAT in Jammu,” he said and added that only the tax on value addition is collected in Kashmir.The spokesman said that Jammu being the entry point to the State, and a takeoff hub for all the goods and other products being carried to every part of the State is evidently the main collection centre for all the taxes that is why the tax collection is higher in the winter capital.He said the newspaper seems to have venally twisted and misrepresented the tax collection data, which was presented in the Legislative Assembly in response to a question by Legislator, Mr Rajesh Gupta.