J&K gives amnesty to settle tax arrears of pre-GST regime

Jammu: The J&K Administrative Council (AC), which met under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, approved a proposal of the finance department to grant amnesty for settlement of tax arrears pertaining to the pre-GST regime, an official statement said on Wednesday.

"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 by the government," the statement said.

Earlier, all dealers could not take the benefits of the erstwhile amnesty scheme due to various reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic.

As such, large number 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 the dealers on the following terms:

* 100 per cent 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).

* 100 per cent 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).

* Waiver of interest and penalty in (i) and (ii) subject to 100 per cent payment of principal tax in the manner and within the prescribed time as per the scheme to be notified by the government.

* Settlement of demands for industrial units under repealed J&K Value Added Tax Act, 2005 (up to 2017-18), J&K General Sales Tax Act, 1962 (up to 07/07/2017 and 31/08/2017 for liquor-dealing units), and Central Sales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.

The statement added that this decision on the part of the government will result in minimising tax dispute cases and winding up pre-GST cases.

"The time limit for receiving the applications for this amnesty scheme will not be more than six months from the date an order is issued in this regard," the statement said.