Odisha's commercial tax dues mount to Rs 4,345 cr

Dues of major corporates-ITC, Paradeep Phosphates stand at Rs 45.88 cr and Rs 43.82 cr, respectively

Commercial tax dues of Odisha have mounted to Rs 4,344.61 crore with major corporates – ITC Ltd and Paradeep Phosphates Ltd (PPL) defaulting on payments.

Finance minister Prasanna Acharya informed the state assembly that dues of ITC and PPL stood at Rs 45.88 crore and Rs 43.82 crore respectively.

The commercial tax arrears have accumulated in the past five years since 2006-07. The dues have piled up as litigations pertaining to these cases are pending in various courts of law. The state government’s demand for commercial taxes was contested by the concerned parties in the Supreme Court, Odisha High Court and sales tax tribunal.

For the Bhubaneswar region alone, gross commercial tax arrears stood at Rs 758.17 crore, including dues of Odisha Sales tax (OST), value added tax (VAT) and Central sales tax (CST). By invoking OST (Settlement of Arrears) Act-2011, the state government has settled 332 cases, realizing an amount of Rs 4.36 crore while 386 other cases are still pending, the minister said.

“We are regularly reviewing the cases relating to commercial tax arrears. The government has not waived off any dues,” he added. The minister’s reply was in response to BJD MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain who sought to know if there was any monitoring mechanism to expedite collection of tax arrears.

In 2012-13, the state government has collected Rs 7,003.46 crore by way of sales tax till January end, 17.62 per cent growth over Rs 5,954.29 crore achieved in the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

In 2010-11 and 2011-12, the state government collected Rs 6,798.97 crore and Rs 8,212.98 crore respectively by way of commercial taxes.