In a major relief to traders, the Himachal Pradesh government has introduced "deemed assessment" system for traders with annual turnover up to Rs 1 crore.
Besides, the assessment time limit which was November 30, 2015, has also been extended to March 20, 2016.
Announcing the decisions at the meeting of Traders Welfare Board here, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said that with a view to ensuring hassle free transportation of goods, trucks having full on-line declaration of goods entering the state would now not necessarily be required to stop at the barriers.
Also Read
Singh said that to save the dealers from the hassle of uploading different returns under different Acts, the Excise and Taxation Department has started a common log-in IDthrough which a dealer would be able to upload all his returns.
He added that presently dhabas, halwais, tea and chat shops with turnover of less than Rs 5 lakh were exempted from payment of VAT but from the current fiscal, the limit has been raised to Rs 8 lakh.
There are about 47,000 small traders having a turnover of less than Rs 25 lakh who were paying tax to the government,he said, adding that a proposal had been devised to bring such traders under the ambit of group accidental insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh and premium wouldbe paid by the state government.
The Chief Minister further said that VAT on fabrication of body of trucks and buses, had also been reduced from 13.75 per cent to five per cent and the government has facilitated the traders by providing them the facility to fill the combined return of Value Added Tax (VAT), Central Sales Tax (CST) and entry Tax.
Besides, he said that 'Solar stoves' (Chullahs) as approved by TERI or by Ministry of Renewable energy have been exempted from VAT.
The Chief Minster informed that since June, 2015 more than 40 banks had been associated with Cyber Treasury so that the traders could file their tax returns from any of the banks, adding that now onwards, there was no need to file a set of hard copy by those traders who submit annual tax details along with the digital signatures.
However, those who did not have this facility would be provided the same through one time password from the website of the excise department and henceforth there would not be any need to submit hard copy of the tax details.
It was also discussed in the meeting that co-operative societies should also be registered under the VAT Act.
The meeting decided to form a departmental committee for deciding Input Tax Credit (ITC) on goods purchased so that the dealer could be entitled to claim the credit.
Further, the dealers having a turnover of up to Rs 25 lakh and doing inter-state purchases or sales, have also been brought under the ambit of lumpsum scheme, he added.
