Shimla: In a move to provide significant relief to the small and marginal traders and settle approximately 50,000 cases of the pre-GST era under litigation or tax assessment, the State Government has announced to roll out a ‘Himachal Pradesh Sadhbhawana Legacy Cases Resolution Scheme, 2023’.
The scheme is expected to benefit both traders and the Department of State Taxes and Excise, as it will help to dispose-off all pending legacy cases and recover arrears currently stuck in litigation. This would allow the stakeholders as well as the department to focus on GST compliance.
The Scheme shall be valid initially for a period of 3 months. Under the Scheme, taxpayers will be able to pay the outstanding tax amounts due and be free from any other consequences under the Law, while receiving full waivers of interests and penalties.
This Scheme will help in disposing-off the pending legacy cases and settlement of arrears which are under litigation or are yet to be assessed. The dealer is required to pay due tax along with the applicable settlement fee, but this does not offer any waiver of tax component.
Commissioner, State Taxes and Excise Yunus said the stakeholders may apply under the scheme by visiting the concerned department’s circle office. The dealers will have to deposit the applicable settlement fee online in the relevant head of account of subsumed enactment. The State Government aims to generate a revenue collection of about Rs. 20 to Rs. 25 crores by settling almost 50,000 pending cases.
The Department had previously introduced a legacy scheme in the year 2019, through which 14,814 cases were disposed-off and revenue of Rs. 393 crores was realized. Under the second scheme, a total of 20,642 cases were settled and Rs. 19.16 crore in revenue was collected.
