The Government of Maharashtra, Office of the Commissioner of Sales Tax issued Order vide No. EIU/Withdrawal of Assessments/B-366, Mumbai dated June 15, 2021 w.r.t. Withdrawal of pending assessments proceedings.
The schemes namely “Maharashtra Value Added Tax Criteria for Withdrawal (on the basis of probable revenue involved) of the Assessment Proceedings Scheme, 2021” and the scheme namely “Maharashtra Criteria for Selection (on the basis of probable revenue earnings) of the cases for Assessment (Amendment) Scheme, 2021” have been notified as per reference no. 1 and 2 cited above.
For the effective utilization of the available manpower for the disposal of pending work under the Value Added Tax Act, the Central Sales Tax Act and also the work related to Goods and Services Tax, it has become necessary to formulate the criteria for withdrawal of the assessment proceedings where the likely revenue earnings in each such case is as determined with the use of the Business Intelligence Data Warehouse tools or such other electronic data mining tools, is less than the threshold as provided in clause 6 of notification referred at serial number 1.
According to clause 4 of the notification referred at serial number 1, work of recommendation of withdrawal of pending assessment proceedings is assigned to the Committee constituted under the said scheme. As per recommendations of the Committee, the assessment proceedings, initiated under sub-section (5) of section 23 of Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act or, as the case may be, initiated under sub-section (2) of section 9 of the Central Sales Tax Act read with sub-section (5) of section 23 of Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, for the periods starting on or after the 1st April 2015 and ending on or before the 30th June 2017, which are pending on the date of passing of this order, have been recommended for withdrawal of assessment proceedings, as per the assessment withdrawal schemes. The Committee has recommended a list of dealers and periods, as per Annexure for such withdrawal of assessment proceedings.
I, Rajeev Kumar Mital, Commissioner of Sales Tax, Maharashtra, as per the powers conferred upon me vide clause 7 (1) (a) of the notification No. VAT/1521/C.R. 1/ Taxation-1 dated the 1st April 2021, accept recommendations of the said Committee for withdrawal of assessment proceedings for concerned periods and accord sanction for withdrawal of such assessment proceedings as per Annexure attached with this order. For the removal of doubts, it is hereby clarified that dealers, mentioned in the Annexure shall not be eligible for the benefit of the assessment withdrawal schemes, for the periods, in respect of which:
- assessment order have been already passed prior to the date of this order for withdrawal of pending assessment proceedings.
- the assessment proceeding is initiated as a result of investigation under section 64 of the Act or sub-section (2) of the section 9 of Central Sales Tax Act read with section 64 of the Act, either before or after the publication of the Scheme in the Official Gazette
- directions of the appellate authority including Tribunal or the Court are received.
- dealer has shown tax payable in the return or accepted tax liability in F-704 (Accepted ask to pay) filed by him but not paid the said liability.
Notwithstanding the withdrawal of assessment proceedings, interest, if any, payable under section 30(1) or as the case may be, section 30(2) of the Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act shall not be waived and shall be payable.
The Annexure, containing TIN, Act, periods of assessment has been published on the official website of the State Tax Department.
The Order along with Annexure can be accessed at: http://www.a2ztaxcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Withdrawal-order-of-pending-assessment-proceedings-IBA-DTD.16.06.2021.pdf