West Bengal Govt launches scheme for settlement of pending Sales Tax/ VAT/ Entry Tax

New Delhi, Jan 19 (KNN) The Directorate of Commercial Taxes, Government of West Bengal has come up with a scheme for settlement of pending Sales Tax/ VAT/ Entry Tax under the settlement scheme to help businesses in settling taxation disputes.

All tax disputes cases lying at different charges or Appellate/ Revisional/ Review forums or with Tax Recovery Officer/ Certificate Officer including entry tax has been included in the scheme.

The scope of the scheme has been widened by including pending cases where notices quantifying the amount payable have been issued and also different types of penalty cases, even when no appeal/ revision/ review has been filed.

The scheme allows full waiver of interest, penalty and late fee in assessment related cases.

This will help tax payers to reduce their past liabilities and make them free from litigation and will facilitate in carrying out business under GST regime.

In a notification, Directorate of Commercial Taxes said “The scheme will allow one-time payment of 35 per cent for the disputed amount while the same will be 40 per cent for payments made in installments.”

For cases which involves paying penalty, the settlement of the dispute can be made by paying 50% of arrear penalty in dispute or the amount already paid towards such arrear, whichever is higher, said the notification.

This is a golden opportunity for all entrepreneurs to settle outstanding Sales Tax/VAT/ Entry Tax cases by paying only admitted tax and/or only a fraction of disputed arrear tax.

The last date for filing application for settlement of dispute in a case pending is 31st March 2019.