Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Wednesday said that the State Government had introduced the ‘deemed assessment system’ for the traders as per its assurance.
It had been introduced for traders having a turn-over of upto `1 crore which would save them from the arduous regular assessment procedure and frequently visiting the offices of Excise and Taxation Department. Besides, the assessment time limit, which was November 30 earlier, had also been extended till March 20, said he while presiding over the meeting of Traders Welfare Board here.
The Chief Minister said that with a view to ensure hassle-free transportation of goods, the trucks having full on-line declaration of goods entering the State would now not necessarily be required to stop at such barriers and the notification in this regard had been issued thus fulfilling the promise made to traders.
Virbhadra Singh said that in order to save the dealers from the hassle of uploading different returns under different Acts, the Excise and Taxation Department now has started a common log-in id through which a dealer would be able to upload all his returns.
He said that presently Dhabas, Halwais, Tea and Chat Shops were exempted from payment of VAT if their turn-over was less than `5 lakhs adding that from fiscal 2015-16, the exemption limit for these dealers had been raised to `8 lakhs.
There were about 47,000 small traders having a turn-over of less than `25 lakhs who were paying tax to the Government, said the Chief Minister while adding that a proposal had been devised to bring such traders under the ambit of group accidental insurance cover of `2 lakhs and premium would be paid by the State Government.
Fulfilling the promise, the Chief Minister said that VAT on fabrication of body of trucks and Buses, had also been reduced from 13.75 per cent to five per cent.
The Government has facilitated the traders by providing them to fill the combined return of Value Added Tax (VAT), Central Sales Tax (CST) and entry Tax. Besides the Government has necessitated online e-payment of VAT and CST so that the traders do not unnecessarily keep visiting the banks, he added.
The Chief Minster said that since June, 2015 more than 40 banks had been associated with Cyber Treasury so that the traders could fill their tax returns from any of the banks, adding that now onwards, there is no need to file a set of hard copy by those traders who submit annual tax details along-with the digital signatures. However, those who did not have this facility would be provided the same through a one time password from the website of the Excise Department and henceforth there would not be any need to submit hard copy of the tax details.
During the meeting, it was discussed that the co-operatives society will be registered under the VAT Act. It was also decided to form a departmental committee for deciding Input Tax Credit (ITC) on goods purchased so that the dealer could be entitled to claim the credit.
Those dealers having a turn-over of upto `25 lakh and who are doing Inter-State Purchases or Sales, have also been brought under the ambit of lump sum scheme.