*Arrears to be paid in installments
Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, Nov 13: With the objective of recovering arrears worth several crores from traders, transporters and industrialists, the State Government today announced an Amnesty Scheme in exercise of powers conferred under Section 25- D of the J&K GST Act, 1962.
The State Government today issued three SROs (360, 361 and 362) separately – which dwell upon various provisions of the newly announced Amnesty Scheme for penalties imposed on defaulters as well as interest due on tax collections. The Amnesty Scheme, which comes into force from today, is also applicable to tax arrears and penalty/interest under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956.
“Also, the amnesty is only for the GST dealers, whose tax arrears had accumulated over the years till 2004-2005, before the onset of VAT Regime in the State”, sources said, adding, “the Government expect to mop up arrears to the tune of Rs 200 – Rs 300 crores with this Amnesty Scheme”.
The Amnesty Scheme offers 100% remission of the penalty and interest on arrears of the tax in respects of all the dealers of the State and for the transporters, it offers 100 % remission of penalty imposed up to the accounting year 2004-05. Besides, the Scheme has been provided with the aim of condoning the defaults of compliance of technical nature within a specific time frame up to the accounting year 2004-05.
SRO-360, which has been issued by Commissioner/ Secretary Finance, Navin K Choudhary states that the Scheme has been extended to all the dealers registered under the provisions of Jammu and Kashmir General Sales Tax Act, 1962, who pay the arrears of sales tax, assessed/re-assessed up to the accounting year 2015-2016, in six equal monthly installments, with the first installment to be paid within one month of the publication of this notification.
“The remission of interest and penalty shall also be available to the dealers, who have paid their admitted/assessed tax for all the accounting years up to 2015-2016, in part or in full and deposit the balance payable amount of tax in six equal monthly installments, with the first installment to be deposited within one month of the publication of this notification”, says the notification.
The documents stated that the provisions will also be applicable to even those dealers, who are yet to be assessed as per provision of the J&K GST Act, 1962 for any of the accounting years. “They shall, however, be eligible for availing the benefit of the scheme subject to the condition that they file the returns along with trading accounts, etc. as provided under Section 7 of the J&K GST Act, 1962 and the proof of payment of 1/6th of the total amount of assessed tax. The declaration of self-assessment, as may be prescribed for the purpose by the Commissioner, shall also require to be filed in such cases and it must be accompanied with the proof of payment of 1/6th of the total amount of assessed tax”, the document said.
According to the documents, “such dealers, who have been assessed up to the accounting year 2015-16, shall simply file a declaration as may be prescribed by the Commissioner for that particular year(s) along with the proof of payment of 1/6th of the assessed tax arrears”.
Elaborating on the defaulting provisions, the SRO says, “default in payment of first installment shall entail outright disqualification from the scheme. However, default in payment of any subsequent monthly installment shall make the dealer liable for disqualification, only if he is not able to furnish proof of the payment of the missed installment along with penalty equivalent to 5% of the unpaid installment amount with the next installment which shall become due”, adding, “in case of any further default, the dealer shall be liable to pay the entire amount of arrears along with the interest and penalty.” All the installments shall have to be deposited within six months from coming into force of the notification”, it states.
The benefit of remission under SRO-360 can also be availed by the industrial unit holders, whose products figure in the negative list or who are not entitled to any sales tax exemption.
As far as the cases where the dealers, who have challenged the orders passed under any Section of the Jammu & Kashmir General Sales Tax Act, 1962, before any Appellate Authority or Courts, the SRO says, “the benefit of Scheme shall be subject to the condition that the concerned dealer files an application before the Competent Authority, along with an affidavit, that he has filed an application for withdrawal of such cases and that there are no proceedings pending before any Appellate Forum or Courts”.
“The concerned Assessing Authorities having jurisdiction shall be competent to pass order for waiver of such interest/ penalty. The amount, if any already paid towards penalty or interest imposed/ levied under the aforesaid Section, before the issuance of this notification, shall neither be refunded nor adjusted in any manner”, says the document.
SRO-361, which deals with industrial sector states that the Government has issued notifications from time to time authorizing exemption from payment of sales tax for the industries. The said notifications have remained loaded with conditionalities, which has led to non-compliance of various technical requirements by the entrepreneurs.
“The Amnesty scheme provision for this sector are aimed at condoning the defaults of compliance of technical nature stipulated in the relevant notifications by giving the unit holders an opportunity to make good the deficiencies, within a specified time frame upto accounting year 2004-2005”, says the SRO.
In exercise of powers conferred by the fourth proviso to Section 25-D of the Jammu and Kashmir General Sales Tax Act, 1962, the SRO says, “large, medium and small scale industrial units, which are carrying on or were carrying on the activity of manufacturing goods and which have been assessed/ reassessed to tax or will be assessed/ reassessed to tax for non-submission of various documents or fulfillment of requirements stipulated under the relevant notifications, shall file the documents/ revised documents in compliance with the provisions of the notifications applicable from time to time, along with a declaration as may be prescribed by the Commissioner Sales Tax, within three months from the issuance of this notification with the concerned Assessing Authority to entitle them to grant of exemption if otherwise admissible and the documents so filed shall be accompanied by proof of payment of Rs. 1000/- for each year of default only.”
The documents added, “the unit holders who have failed to renew their exemption license, within the stipulated period for any of the accounting years relating to period of exemption, shall file the requisite documents and deposit within three months from the date of issuance of this notification fee chargeable along with the late fee of Rs. 1000/- per year of default only”.
It further said, “the unit holders, who have been disallowed exemption or are liable to withdrawal of exemption on imposition of penalty upon them and thereby disqualifying them for exemption shall not forfeit their exemption on this count provided they furnish the proof of payment of the amount of such penalty within three months from the date of issuance of this notification”.
“The unit holders, who have conducted any sale of the goods manufactured by them during the period when they were registered only provisionally, shall also be covered by this Scheme to the extent admissible under earlier notifications on furnishing proof of payment of tax on such sales. On production of such evidence, the dealer shall be entitled to 100% remission of interest/penalty payable on account of such tax”, says the notification.
The prescribed declaration and the documents required to be submitted therewith shall be examined by the Assessing Authority within two months from the last date prescribed for filing of documents, and the deficiencies, if any, shall be allowed to be made good within a period of one month from the date of issuance of deficiency notice. Failure to make good the deficiencies shall render the unit holder ineligible for benefit under this notification and entire amount of tax, interest and penalty shall be recovered in accordance with the provisions of law.
SRO-32, while deals with transporters across the State while referring to Section 25-D of the Jammu and Kashmir General Sales Tax, Act 1962 says, “there shall be 100% remission of penalty imposed upto the accounting year 2004-05 under clause (b) of Sub-Section (8) of Section 15A of the Jammu & Kashmir General Sales Tax Act, 1962 in respect of the transporters.”
“In respect of the cases where the transporters have challenged the orders passed under clause (b) of Sub-Section (8) of Section 15A of the Jammu & Kashmir General Sales Tax Act, 1962, before any Appellate Authority or Court(s) of Law, the benefit of Scheme shall be available subject to the condition that the concerned transporter files an application before the Competent Authority, along with an affidavit, that he has filed an application for withdrawal of such cases and that there are no proceedings pending before any Appellate Forum or Courts”, says the document.
(For copy of SROs and Amnesty Schemes guidelines, visit website)
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