Amnesty to bizmen to settle pre-GST arrears The Administrative Council (AC) approved a proposal of the Finance Department for granting amnesty for settlement of tax arrears pertaining to pre-GST regime.

“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 to the government.

Earlier, all dealers could not take benefit of erstwhile amnesty scheme due to various reasons including Covid-19 pandemic,” an official spokesperson said.

He said that large number of representations were received from the trade and industry sector for granting a one-time opportunity to the dealers for settlement of the outstanding arrears under the pre-GST tax legislations.

The amnesty scheme provides relief to dealers on terms including 100% 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)

The scheme will also provide benefit with 100% waiver of penalty and interest.

The amnesty will also have a settlement of demands for industrial units under repealed J&K VAT Act, J&K General Sales Tax Act, 1962, and CST Act, in respect of assessed/ re-assessed demands, including yet-to-be assessed cases with certain conditions to be notified in the scheme.

“This decision on the part of government will result into minimising of tax dispute cases and winding up of pre-GST cases.

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