Investors resent delay in clearance of VAT cases

Ambika Sharma
Tribune News Service
Solan, February 6

With cases of sales tax assessment pertaining to the period prior to the implementation of the GST being pending in the state, the investors have demanded a one-time policy to clear this pendency.

The Himachal Chapter of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has raised this demand before the state government as thousands of such cases pertaining to period before June 2017 were awaiting assessment.

IMJS Sidhu, chairman, Himachal Chapter of CII, said a policy pertaining to various financial years will enable the industry as well as the state to clear long pendency of such cases. He said that the state government can also consider rolling out one time amnesty scheme with reasonable penalty or fine in the absence of C Forms so as to close the issues on fast track mode under the old regime.

Since the GST had already being introduced from July 2017, the pendency of the sales tax assessment cases was causing undue hardships to the investors. Not only were the investors facing inordinate delay in getting refunds but government revenue worth crores was stuck up on account of the delayed tax assessment.

Officials in the Excise and Taxation Department, while citing paucity of staff in the department, said with the introduction of the GST the pressure to ensure timely completion of the GST-related work has left them with little time to deal with the pending tax assessments. They also added that a key issue of shortage of C forms in other states from where goods are purchased also adds to the delay as the investors do not come forward for the tax assessments in such cases.

With the sales tax from the industry being a major source of revenue to the state, crores were stuck up due to delay in tax assessments pertaining to several previous years before June 2017.

Officials said that availability of dedicated staff to deal with the pending tax assessments can help improve the tax realisation and they will be able to focus on GST where revenue shortfall was a major cause of concern for the state.