Tax officers lax in settling old dues

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan,September 27

Following lack of awareness about the Himachal Pradesh (Legacy Cases Resolution) Scheme aimed at settling dues of the pre-GST era, officials of the Excise and Taxation Department (ETD) are yet to fetch sizeable income from it.

The scheme, introduced in April, was supposed to settle all pre-GST era tax cases by September 30. These comprise the GST, VAT, the CST and other taxation cases. As a handful of people have applied for tax settlement, the officials are seeking extension of the scheme.

There is a pendency of arrears of around Rs 3,500 crore and 3 lakh assessment cases with the department. It is estimated that the scheme will release a revenue of Rs 620 crore to Rs 670 crore, if all defaulters apply under it. It will also help release considerable manpower engaged in legacy issues, resulting in availability of more manpower for improving compliances under the GST. A sizeable revenue is slated to be added to the state exchequer, which has been stuck due to delay in assessment.

Excise and Taxation Commissioner Rohan Chand Thakur said a case to extend the scheme beyond September 30 had been moved before the government as only five or six persons had applied for the settlement and a similar number had applied before the field staff.

He added, “There is lack of awareness about the scheme not just among tax payers, but also among the staff which had led to poor results. Workshops have been conducted to educate the staff.”

“For effective communication, a mechanism has been developed at the district level to address the queries. Various aspects like VAT have been segregated to ensure the optimum results with performance being reviewed every 10 days,” he said.

A target of collecting Rs 501 crore has been given to all districts with the excise district of Baddi having the highest target of Rs 100 crore, followed by Rs 65 crore for rest of Solan district.