Bengal pushes for amnesty scheme to raise tax revenue

The West Bengal government was pushing hard for an amnesty scheme in commercial taxes among the huge unregistered dealers in the state to raise tax revenue after entry tax collection was put on hold by a court recently. ‘The government’s amnesty scheme would allow a dealer to pay only at the rate of two per cent of his taxable sales done in the previous years and get rid of tax liabilities and escape prosecution,’ Commissioner Commercial Taxes, Vinod Kumar said speaking at an interactive session at the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The state government received a blow in revenue collection after the court disallowed the state recetnly from collecting entry tax that raised Rs 120-150 crore a month since it was introduced in April this year.

Entry tax collection of Rs 500 crore was collected till the Calcutta High Court barred the state from collecting it.