Presiding over the first meeting of re-constituted Traders Welfare Board in Shimal, Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said the State Government would soon introduce ‘deemed assessment system’ for the traders having a turn-over of Rsone crore which would save them from the arduous regular assessment procedure and frequently visiting the offices of Excise and Taxation Department.
He said that the traders would be informed about deemed assessment through website of the department and also by SMS on their mobiles.
The Chief Minister said to ensure hassle free transportation of goods, the vehicles leaving the State had already been exempted from stopping at the inter-State barriers and henceforth the trucks with full on-line declaration of goods entering the State would also not be required to stop at such barriers.
The necessary amendment had been made in the VAT Act to ensure the same.
Singh said to save the dealers from the hassle of uploading different returns under different Acts, the Excise and Taxation Department would provide a separate login-id through which they would be able to upload all returns.
He said presently dhabas, halwai’s, tea and chat shops were exempted from payment of VAT if their turn-over was less than Rsfive lakhs adding that from 1st April, 2015, the exemption limit for these dealers had been raised to rupees eight lakhs.
There were about 47,000 small traders having a turn-over of less than Rs25 lakhs who were paying tax to the Government, he said, adding that such traders had been brought under the ambit of group accidental insurance cover of Rstwo lakhs and premium would be paid by the State Government.