An association delegation comprising Association president S.P. Jeyapragasam, secretary P. Subash Chandra Bose and other office-bearers presented a memorandum to S.N.M. Ubayadullah, Minister for Commercial Taxes, recently at Chennai pressing various demands.

The delegation requested the Minister to make the announcements in this regard during the Grant for Commercial Taxes Department.

The association also appealed to the State Government to consider exempting pickle from the 4 per cent value added tax (VAT). It pointed out that the Centre had already granted excise duty exemption for pickle.

Speaking about ‘Samadhan scheme,' Mr. Jeyapragasam said that a provision should be made for remitting 25 per cent of total tax outstanding before implementation of VAT on January 1, 2007. The interest should not exceed 3 per cent and no penalty should be charged.

Also, whenever a verdict in a court case goes against the Commercial Tax Department, it immediately goes for cross appeal without considering the merits.

He called for constituting a committee to decide in what cases to go for cross appeal. An amendment should be made to enable filing re-returns within three months in cases of mistakes in the monthly returns. Also, no penalty should be levied on tax arrears amount, for which the assessment could be confirmed at a later date on appeal, he said. The association also thanked the Minister for having reduced tax coffee, sweet and ‘karams' with trade marks, and ready mix products from 12.5 per cent to 4 per cent.

Source : The Hindu, India, dated 05/04/2010