At last ..........

At last long awaited amendments to MVAT Rules are now made and the Profession Tax Amnesty period is extended.

In the last month I had stated about the long time taken by all concerned in making necessary amendments or issuing clarifications even after they are convinced about the issues represented by the STPAM and had also stated that as STPAM we cannot stop representing. The recent amendments to Rules is also the outcome of our continuous representations and we at the same time mention that now the Department should take the stock of all our suggestions made right from 2002.

Though the Profession Tax Amnesty period is extended, the Department and the Finance Department till the last minute kept all of us under tense. As the Hon’ble Commissioner Mr. Sanjay Bhatia refused to extend the said period we approached the Finance Minister vide our letter dated 26th October. On 2nd day of November, on telephone I requested Hon’ble Mr. Subodh Kumar, the Principal Secretary Finance who responded positively and on 3rd day of November at around 4.00 pm the notification to extend the period was issued.

However in all this episode of extension, the Department till today has overlooked the issuance of Trade Circular to clarify about various procedural issues raised by us in our representation. Though Jt. Commissioner Mr. Bhattacharji has orally assured us about some of them it has no sanctity like that of a Trade Circular. Under all the earlier amnesty schemes every issue raised by the STPAM was clarified by way of number of Trade Circulars and to give effect to those clarifications the duration of the schemes was also extended from time to time. The pending issues mentioned herein above are as under.

1. Intimation letter to certificate holders in arrears:– Trade Circular issued for ‘Amnesty Scheme 2004’ had prescribed intimation letter to be sent by Department to dealers who are in arrears. Issuance of such letter would be of great help to such tax payers as well as in view of proposed survey, the Department wishes to undertake from November 2007.

2. Intimation regarding the short payment:– After receipt of application, the applicant should be intimated by an administrative order about the status of his application. In case of short payment he should be asked to make default good within specified period and such letter/administrative order be given within 15 days from the receipt of application.

3. Application for amnesty:– Filing of instant application, when payment is made on the last day may cause a problem unless such tax payer is allowed to submit the application within one month from the expiry of the scheme.

4. Withdrawal of appeal:– It may be made clear in the Circular, whether attaching acknowledgement of withdrawal letter would suffice or one has to attach order of appellate authority allowing such withdrawal? This clarification would bring uniformity in the administration of scheme and there will be no complaints coming from different sections on this count.

5. Credit of tax paid in appeal:– Earlier the Department had consistently allowed the part payment to be first adjusted against tax, then against interest and penalty, if any and therefore this is required to be clarified.

6. Permission to opt for year wise application:– Certificate holders be allowed to file year wise application instead of compelling them to file application for block of 5 years from 2002 to 2007.

7. Credit for payment made under wrong challan:– It is noticed that some employers have paid off taxes for employees under PT Enrolment numbers through oversight/ignorance. Now they will obtain new registration numbers. If the fact is pointed out of having paid taxes under enrolment, the credit of the same should be given.

At this juncture we must appreciate and mention that the whole staff of the Department worked very hard to entertain every applicant and many of them sincerely expressed the view that it is very essential to grant extension to the scheme. I must also mention that
Mr. Bhattacharji not only encouraged the staff but also was very helpful to every visitor approaching him for any difficulty. But the fact remains that the Profession Tax Department is working with shorter manpower comparing with the number of tax payers. As a result it is necessary to increase the manpower not only during the period of amnesty but also for future in order to have effective administration of the Act.

After taking all these factors into account and also for want of pending clarifications we earnestly suggest the Commissioner to strongly recommend the State Government to extend the period of the Scheme till 31st March, 2008 and to undertake the survey during and after the period of the scheme. Ultimately it is in the interest of we all, to regularize the thing in the right earnest.