Rekha Gupta Govt Plans One-Time Tax Waiver for Delhi Traders
New Delhi
In a major relief for Delhi’s business community, the Rekha Gupta-led government is set to introduce a one-time tax waiver scheme. The move aims to ease financial burdens on traders and boost economic activity in the capital.
Relief news for traders Delhi's Rekha Gupta government is going to implement a special tax waiver scheme for quick resolution of disputes related to excise, service and value added tax (VAT) before GST. This initiative will make it possible to resolve pending VAT disputes of about Rs 10-15 thousand crore in the capital.
It is worth mentioning that GST was implemented in the entire country including Delhi in July 2017, whereas before this the Delhi government used to collect these direct taxes through VAT. Settlement of old tax cases is pending since the implementation of GST.
About 3.50 lakh traders affected
The Delhi government has presented a proposal in the cabinet, according to which about 3.50 lakh traders are affected by tax cases before 2017. Many of these cases are still pending in the court. The government is trying to end these old cases by implementing a one-time tax waiver scheme, which will provide relief to traders and also reduce the increased administrative burden due to cases pending in the courts.
According to sources, the proposal recommends waiving the penalty and interest imposed in addition to the actual tax in old tax cases of traders. If the government implements this, it can be successful in recovering actual tax of more than Rs 5500 crore. However, in some cases, along with giving exemption in actual tax to traders, the matter of waiver of interest and penalty has also been raised, on which the Finance Department is not yet agreeing. The final decision in this matter has to be taken by the cabinet of the government.