Waiver of penalty & interest; remission for Industrial units
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Jan 15: Following the Administrative Council decision, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir today notified the scheme of amnesty for settlement of Tax arrears pertaining to pre-GST regime.
According to the order, issued by the Finance Department, there shall be waiver of 100 percent of penalty and interest payable by the dealer under the J&K General Sales Tax Act, 1962, J&K Value Added Tax Act 2005 and Central Sales Tax Act 1956 relating to assessment/re-assessment made including yet to be assessed cases till accounting year 2017-18.
However, this waiver of interest and penalty shall be subject to the payment of 100 percent of principal Tax in the manner and within the prescribed time.
The industrial unit holders, who have been disallowed remission for non-submission of various documents or on the account of unaccounted goods, concealed purchase etc, shall be entitled to remission/exemption of tax alongwith interest and penalty on production of required documents.
Titled as KAR-SAMADHAN-2024, the scheme shall remain open for receipt of applications till June 30, 2024.
As per the Government order number 18-FD of 2024, dated January 15, 2024, there shall be waiver of penalty and interest payable by the dealers relating to assessment cases till accounting year 2017-18 up to July 7, 2017 whereas in respect of dealers dealing in Liquor, the date of coverage shall be August 31, 2017.
Similarly, there shall be settlements of demands in respect of Large/Medium/Small Scale Industrial Units for the accounting years up to 2017-18 up to July 7, 2017 and August 31, 2017 in case of industrial units dealing in liquor.
Further, the Government has set a timeline for payment of Principal Tax and filling of application for availing benefits of the amnesty scheme.
The applicant can pay the Principal Tax in installments up to six and must clear the entire amount by June 30, 2024. Default in payment of one installment shall be condoned on payment of default installment along with additional amount of 0.5 percent of default installment for every day of default.
Further, condonation of default shall be allowed only once during the currency of this scheme and default in payment of any further installment within the prescribed timeline shall entail outright disqualification from the scheme without intimation.
Listing conditions for waiver of interest and penalty in case of industrial units, the Government has notified that the industrial unit holders who have been disallowed remission for non- submission of various documents prescribed under rules and notification governing the remission scheme available to the industrial units registered under the Jammu and Kashmir Value Added Tax Act, 2005 (now repealed) and where the demands have been created for non-submission of various documents prescribed under rules and notification governing the exemption scheme available to the industrial units registered under the Jammu and Kashmir General Sales Tax Act, 1962, shall be entitled to remission/exemption of tax along with interest and penalty on production of said documents/revised documents along with declaration by or before 30th June 2024. However, this scheme shall not be applicable to the cases where demands were raised for non-production of various statutory forms.
Where an industrial unit has been penalized under VAT or General Sales Tax, the unit holder shall submit proof of payment of tax leviable on the sale of such goods alongwith declaration for claiming remission/ exemption on account of tax along with interest and penalty.
Similarly, where an industrial unit has been disallowed remission on the grounds that unaccounted goods were found at the time of inspection or concealed purchases, the unit holder shall submit proof of payment of tax leviable on sale of such unaccounted goods for the said accounting year along with declaration for claiming remission/ exemption on account of tax along with interest and penalty.
In other similar types of cases, the remission shall be allowed on submission of requisite documents, proofs and the declaration.
Where the dealer has no arrears of tax but has arrears of penalty and interest only, relating to the assessments or re-assessments already completed and to be completed by or before 30th June 2024, as the case may be, such arrears of penalty and interest shall be eligible for waiver. The Jurisdictional Officer may take cognizance of such cases either on application of the dealer or suo-motto basis.
In case a dealer has filed an appeal or any application against the order or proceedings relating to demand of tax, interest and penalty before any Appellate Authority or court and disposal of such appeal is still pending, the dealer is required to withdraw such appeal in order to get the benefit of waiver of arrears of penalty and interest under this Scheme.
Further, the dealer shall not file an appeal or other application before any Appellate Authority or Court seeking rectification of orders/proceedings, after filing application for availing the benefits of this Scheme.
The dealer shall not be eligible to avail the benefits of this Scheme in case the Government has filed an appeal before the J&K Appellate Tribunal or court or any competent authority has initiated Suo-motto revision proceedings as up to the date of this order.
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