Maha traders urge extension of phase I for amnesty scheme

Umbrella body representing traders in Maharashtra on Friday urged the government to extend the last date for filing application for first phase of amnesty scheme, as a large number of dealers were not able to take advantage of it due to crashing of website. "We request the government and the commissioner of the state tax to extend the date for filing application for first phase of amnesty scheme, which ended on July 31, as the site crashed from July 25. This made it impossible for traders to take advantage of the scheme," The Goods and Services Tax Practioneres' Association of Maharashtra president Dinesh M Tambde told reporters here.

He further said the government floated the scheme from April 1, and the website began functioning from April 15 and even after that there were several glitches traders in the website while making payment online. The Act is popularly called as Settlement Act, 2019 or Amnesty Scheme, 2019, is great relief made available by the State Government of Maharashtra for litigant dealers and to dispose-off cases of pre-GST period with view to release departmental officers from the work of pre-GST period.

The said Amnesty Scheme, 2019 has two phases, first phase has deadline of July 31 and second phase has deadline of August 31. "The amnesty scheme is very simple, but it has been complicated by various trade circulars issued by the Commissioner of Sales Tax, Maharashtra. In the trade circulars issued by the Commissioner of Sales Tax, there are various parameters specified, which created complexity in the said simple scheme announced by the state government," Tambde added.

The Maharashtra government on March 6, had promoted the Ordinance for Settlement of Arrears of Tax, Interest, Penalty or Late Fee under The Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, The Central Sales Tax Act,1956, The Maharashtra VAT Act, 2002 and other allied laws administered by the state GST department. Under this Amnesty Scheme, 2019 the dealers were allowed to settle their unpaid disputed dues for periods up to July 31, 2017 (that is periods prior to implementation of GST) by paying certain percentage of disputed dues, so that the state GST department would close all the old cases relating to pre-GST era.

If dealer makes online payment of requisite amount for amnesty and files online amnesty application before July 31, he is eligible for the benefit of 30 to 50 percent of waiver from his liability in first phase. However, if dealer is not able make online payment and file online application before July 31, he will miss the dead line of first phase and will lose all the benefits of that phase..