Sales tax window for hill traders

Businesses allowed to clear taxes for three quarters manually to get way bills 

Darjeeling, June 18.TT: The state government has allowed traders here to file sales tax returns manually for July 1, 2011-March 31, 2012, to bypass the problem of uncleared bills from 2008-2011 when businessmen did not pay taxes following a Morcha diktat.

After the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s non-co-operation movement call against the state government in April 2008, hill people had stopped paying all taxes. They agreed to start paying taxes in July 2011 after the GTA agreement was signed.

Across Bengal, traders have to electronically file in their sales tax returns every quarter. If any trader needs a way bill, the software tracks down whether he has outstanding dues. If there are such dues, the software does not generate the way bill.

Traders in the hills were unable to source their goods from outside Bengal as they could not obtain the way bill because their sales taxes from April 2008 were unpaid.

The traders need the way bills as these have to be sent to outstation businessmen who then send the goods along with the way bill. Products which do not have the corresponding way bills can be seized by tax officials at various checkpoints.

The government’s move to relax rules for the convenience of the business community in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong is indicative of its effort to reach out to the hill people.

The commissioner of commercial taxes has asked the business community here to file sales tax returns between July 1, 2011, and March 31, 2012 manually before switching over to electronic filing of returns from April 2012 onwards.

A source in the sales tax office in Darjeeling said: “We have asked hill traders to submit the sales tax returns of three quarters manually and to again file in their returns for the quarter April-June 2012 electronically.”

When the hill traders file their returns electronically — the April-May-June 2012 returns have to be filed within July 31 — the way bills will be generated.

There is no clarity yet on what will happen to the dues that have accumulated between April 2008 and June 2011.

District officials said they have not yet received any circular instructing them on how the dues accumulated between April 2008 and June 2011 would be collected.

A district official said the sales tax dues during that period are around Rs 25 crore.

A trader who sells products worth over Rs 10,000 a month but does not file his returns will have to pay a fine of Rs 2,000 for the first month followed by Rs 500 every month after that. Those traders whose transaction are less than Rs 10,000 each month will have to pay a fine of Rs 500 for the first month followed by Rs 200 for every months delay.

The sales tax percentage differs according to the goods. “If it is a gold item, the sales tax is levied at 1 per cent and if it is garment it is 4 per cent of the goods’ value. There is a list for all items,” said an official.

“Since we have not heard anything from the government (about the 2008-11 dues) we are adding up this fine which works to more than Rs 70,000 per trader on an average till date,” said an official.

A trader said apart from the Rs 70,000 fine, they were also being levied an interest at the rate of around 10 per cent a month on the dues not yet cleared. “In my case, this interest has now touched Rs 4 lakh, apart from the fine and the amount that I need to clear,” he said.

“We are also worried that if the government forces us to pay the outstanding amount, it will be difficult to clear all the dues at one go. Even middle-level traders have outstanding dues amounting to around Rs 2-3 lakh each. Despite the recent arrangement, we are still hoping the state government will issue a circular completely waiving the previous dues as announced by the chief minister recently,” a trader said.