Assembly passes Bill allowing out-of-court tax dispute settlements

Kolkata: The West Bengal Assembly on Thursday passed the West Bengal Sales Tax (Settlement of Dispute) (Amendment) Bill, 2025, aimed at providing relief to taxpayers by enabling the settlement of disputed cases currently pending before various appellate authorities.

Treading the legal path by an aggrieved assessee is usually a time-consuming affair and involves expenditure on both the concerned person and the government.

“When a person is aggrieved with the assessment of tax, he can approach first appellate authority, second appellate authority, sales tax tribunal and other forums. The process is tedious and involves a good expenditure for the assessee, the state also bears expenditure for the legal battle.

Hence, we are providing an opportunity for out-of-court settlement for the aggrieved assessee in which he/ she will have to pay 75 per cent of the assessed amount and the interest and penalty which is

usually a hefty amount will be waived,” said state Finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharjee while discussing the reason for tabling the Bill.

Bhattacharjee clarified that this out-of-court settlement is not mandatory, if an assessee wants he/ she may seek legal recourse.

She added that such facilities are not new to Bengal and are already prevalent in several other states as well.

Bhattacharjee mentioned that a similar Bill was introduced in the state Assembly in 2023, which led to the recovery of Rs 907.14 crore in disputed amounts through settlement. Presently, the disputed amount is over Rs 8500 crore that includes VAT issue with the state, Central sales tax dispute and entry tax.

“If the concerned assesses want, they can apply for settlement,” said a senior Finance department official.