Kolkata: The state government has earned Rs 850 crore through Settlement of Disputes (SoD) scheme in Commercial Taxes for settling old tax disputes related to Sales Tax, Value-Added Tax (VAT), Entry Tax and others.
The dispute settlement scheme was introduced with effect from April 1, 2023, after its announcement was made in the Budget by state Finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharjee. Initially, a time period of two months (till May 31, 2023) was given but it was extended further.
By the end of 2023-24 fiscal, around 22,700 cases were settled and the state has garnered an additional revenue of around Rs 850 crore.
“More than 25,000 cases were pending in different tribunals and courts and both the parties – the taxpayer and the collector (the state administration) – were incurring substantial costs for settling such cases through legal recourse.
The out of court settlement has contributed to bringing down such dispute burden significantly with 22700 cases being already settled,” a Finance department
official said.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced in July 2017 but in Bengal, the businessmen were entangled in disputes under the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994, West Bengal Value Added Tax (VAT) Act, 2003 and Central Sales Tax (CST), 1956.
Before the Covid pandemic in early 2020, the state government introduced the dispute settlement scheme which helped settle 28,697 tax dispute cases. The latest introduction of the SoD scheme is the fourth in the state that helped tax payers settle their VAT and CST cases by depositing 25 per cent of the disputed tax.
“The manpower involved in court settlement can now be utilised in GST collection which is expected to further augment collection in the state. The state in 2023-24 fiscal collected Rs 42,000 crore through GST which was Rs 39,000 crore in the 2022-23 financial year,” the official added.