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Journalism of Courage
CALCUTTA, DEC 12: A major change is being made in the Kar Vivad Samadhan Scheme, 1998, from next week with the inclusion of pre-deposit for the purpose of settlement of the disputed indirect tax liability of assessees.
Speaking at a meeting with members of the Merchants Chamber of Commerce, P N Malhotra, member of the Central Board for Excise amp; Customs, conceded that in case where a lumpsum amount had been paid towards pre-deposit which could not be segregated into duty and penalty elements, the part-payment would constitute tax arrears.
When queried by a chartered accountant, Dilip Desai, on how CBEC will treat pre-deposits by an assessee, particularly in the light of a recent CBDT circular which allowspre-deposits to be adjusted against the tax payable under Samadhan, Malhotra said all lumpsum payments will be considered as part of tax arrears.
The department has also decided to issue a circular next week that besides filing declarations on his behalf, an assessee could, if he so desired, file declarations for settlement of disputes raised by the department. Earlier, appeals filed by the revenue department were not covered, leaving out a substantial portion of the arrear taxes in dispute since the department had initiated several litigations.
On the fate of showcause notices issued to company directors and managers in addition to the main notice to a company which seeks Samadhan, Malhotra clarified that all co-notices will normally be treated as lapsed. However, where the co-notices have specified penalties on an individual they will be regarded as separate cases.
On the genesis of the scheme, Malhotra said it was devised to clear approximately 135,000 indirect tax disputes and 500,000 direct taxdisputes as on March 31, 1998. The response so far has been lukewarm and he invited assesses to come forward and settle all pending disputes to get immunity from prosecution in future against these cases. Earlier, in his welcome address, chamber president Birendra Agarwal made a plea for extension of the Samadhan scheme besides extending the cut-off date for eligible cases from March 31 to September 30, 1998. Malhotra, however, ruled out further extensions.
