In a statement here, Mr N. Jegatheesan, Chamber President, said recent changes made in the VAT monthly return form mandates that dealers furnish the number and date of all the invoices made by them during the month in Annexure I for purchases and in Annexure II for sales.

He said dealers, having hundreds of purchase and sales invoices every month, find it difficult to give details of all their bills. Moreover, some of the tax officials insist that the dealers provide details for invoices made to consumers and for tax-exempted goods. Thousands of bills / invoices are made for sales made to consumers in many departmental stores. It was impossible to furnish details of all such invoices/ bills in the in the VAT return. There was no need to ascertain details of bills made to consumers to monitor tax evasion, he felt.

He further said that if such details were not furnished, tax officials refused to accept the monthly returns from the dealers. As a result, dealers were in a quandary regarding the submission of monthly returns. No clarification has so far been issued by the Commercial Tax Department in this regard, he said.

Many dealers had expressed their inability to provide, all of a sudden, such voluminous details in their VAT return. It is felt that it would take at least six months for them to incorporate the necessary changes in their software for the purpose.

He appealed to the Minister to make an immediate announcement in this regard as the returns for April have to be submitted before the 20 {+t} {+h} of this month.

Source : The Hindu BusinessLine, India, dated 14/05/2010