Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 29: Chamber of Traders’ Federation has appealed to the Lt Governor of JKUT Manoj Sinha to intervene and provide relief to the business community by extending amnesty schemes under VAT, GST and allied business fields like electricity etc.
In a meeting held at Narwal office under the chairmanship of Raman Gupta, president, CTF, attention was drawn to the fact that many willing tax payers were unable to deposit the taxes under VAT amnesty schemes announced by the Government due to Covid situation and overall atmosphere of uncertainty and gloom.
The meeting was made aware by the participants that various notices are being served to the members of the business community and in many cases they had deposited two installments and were unable to deposit the final one owing to Covid situation and market restrictions.
Raman also appealed on behalf of industrial and commercial electricity users that an amnesty scheme on lines of the one extended to domestic users is announced for industrial and commercial users.
He added that when amnesty was announced for domestic consumers it was widely believed that similar one would be announced for industry and commercial users which led to confusion and piling up of arrears, an early announcement would help the ailing industrial sector he observed.
Listing the main issues as per inputs received from stakeholders, Raman said, “ Gairmumkin khad” nomenclature despite being claimed as a settled issue banks are not accepting the same as mortgages neither sale purchase is being allowed thus denying property rights and opportunities to grow to a large section. Lease hold rights of major markets like Narwal fruit market are not being renewed from past few years thus hampering credit extension to states mainstay horticulture sector.
The issue raised by sales tax practitioners was also discussed, amnesty announced by 47th GST council in Feb 2023 giving stipulated time period to avail from 1-4-23 till 30-3-2023 however, due to technical glitches the scheme was posted on GST portal on 22-5-2023 thus shortening the time span for availing the same besides two consecutive bank holidays in J&K on account of EID, many assesses have been denied the right to claim the relief under the amnesty scheme. It was urged that the said scheme may be extended for reasonable duration.
Prominent among those present included Praveen Gupta, Shiv Gupta, Dinesh Gupta, Tushaar Mahajan and Parag Abrol.
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