The Excise and Taxation department’s lucrative scheme Himachal Pradesh Legacy Cases Resolution Scheme, 2019 is proving to be a milestone in collection of government revenue as Rs 108 crore, has been recovered so far, since its launch.
“The Legacy resolution scheme initiated by the State Excise and Taxation Department crossed the vital Rs100 crore collection barrier this week. Revenues stuck due to long pending litigation have been realized by this huge effort put in by the departmental officials,” said Himachal Pradesh State Taxes and Excise Commissioner, Rohan Chand Thakur.
The Scheme is aimed to facilitate the industries and traders to settle the pending arrears as well as any demand that might occur on account of disposal of pending assessments under taxation law subsumed under the HP GST Act, he added.
“Under this scheme the assessee has to pay only 10% over and above his existing outstanding tax liability. However, this happens only when the pending litigation is withdrawn by the interested party,” he said, adding that the basic idea being to promote an investor friendly climate and ease of doing business.
Some of the prominent names to settle have been Indian Tobacco Company, Dabur India, JP Associates, JSW Hydro and JP Associates. This Scheme was brought out in January 2020 but the results in terms of revenue flows have started mainly from October.
“Despite the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, the department officials collected a sum of 46 crores in December and have realized more than 30 crore in January 2021 already,” he said, adding that the department has so far collected Rs 108 crore out of which the major chunk of amount was recovered in the last two months and these revenue are expected to cover up the gap which has arisen due to the pandemic this year.
With the last date of the scheme being 21 January, it is expected that realizations should increase further since many parties have shown a keen interest to settle in the last one month, he added.