Goa govt to offer one-time-settlement to tax defaulters

To recover tax dues of around Rs 300 crore from pre-GST era, currently stuck in litigation, the Goa government is planning to bring a one-time-settlement (OTS) scheme.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday that around 2,500 businesses refused to pay tax dues claimed by the government and some of them have gone to court.

These dues of around Rs 300 crore predate the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax, he said.

The government will introduce an OTS scheme, under which the tax-payer will get fifty percent rebate on the due amount, and the remaining amount can be paid in three months.

"The OTS will be modeled on a similar scheme launched by the Central government," he said.

The chief minister also said that the state earned a compensation of Rs 502 crore for 2018-19 from the Centre towards the revenue loss suffered after state-level taxes were subsumed in GST.

"We will get the compensation till 2022. The state has been benefiting since the introduction of GST," Sawant said.