AC gives amnesty to settle tax arrears of pre GST regime

Srinagar, Dec 27: The Administrative Council (AC) which met here under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha approved a proposal of the Finance Department for granting amnesty for settlement of Tax arrears pertaining to pre GST regime.

Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor; Atal Dulloo, Chief Secretary; Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Principal Secretary to Lieutenant Governor attended the meeting.

This step is going to provide relief to the tax payers in the form of waiver of interest and penalty besides recovery of the blocked revenue to the Government.

Earlier all dealers could not take benefit of erstwhile amnesty scheme issued vide Govt. order no. 39-FD of 2018 dated 05/02/2018 due to various reasons including Covid-19 pandemic.

As such, large no. of representations were received from the trade/industry sector for granting a onetime opportunity to the dealers for settlement of the outstanding arrears under the pre GST tax legislations.

The amnesty Scheme provides relief to dealers on following terms:-

i) 100% waiver of penalty and interest under J&K General Sales Tax Act, 1962, and Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, for assessment/ re-assessment up to 2017-18 (07/07/2017 for all and 31/08/2017 for liquor dealers).

ii) 100% waiver of penalty and interest under J&K Value Added Tax Act, 2005, and Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, for assessments up to 2017-18 (07/07 /2017).

iii) Waiver of interest and penalty in (i) and (ii) subject to 100% payment of principal Tax in the manner and within the prescribed time as per the scheme to be notified by the Government.

iv) Settlement of demands for Industrial Units under repealed J&K Value Added Tax Act, 2005 (up to 2017-18) (upto 07/07/2017), J&K General Sales Tax Act, 1962 (up to 07/07/2017 and 31/08/2017 for liquor-dealing units), and Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, in respect of assessed/ re-assessed demands including yet to be assessed cases with certain conditions to be notified in the scheme.

This decision on the part of government will result into minimising of tax dispute cases and winding up of pre-GST cases etc. The time limit for receiving the applications for this amnesty will not be more than six months from the date an order is issued in this regard.