Traders’ association the Confederation of West Bengal Trade Associations has written to revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra seeking an amnesty scheme for Goods and Service Tax disputes.

According to the trade body, small businesses cannot keep pace with the changes made by the government to the GST through various amendments in the Acts and Rules and through developments on the GST portal, leading to many cases being booked for non compliance or late compliance without the intent of fraud.

“A one-time Vivad scheme may be allowed for cases where showcause notices have been issued. We hope only 30 per cent of tax payment is demanded and a waiver is given for interest and penalty for the years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20,” the trade body said in its letter.

“The mistakes made in filing returns be allowed for rectification and unclaimed credits under section 16(4) should be allowed for all these years,” the letter said.

The trade body has also said that minor discrepancies in e-way bills should not attract penalties and in-spite of a 2018 circular specifying instance of known/possible mistakes, penalties are being levied for clerical mistakes even in cases where there was no intention of fraud.

The traders have highlighted instances where both SGST and CGST are resorting to enforcement action on the same issue and suggested that action should be taken by only one authority and the matter should be uploaded in the system to avoid subsequent action by the other authorities.

The finance ministry in 2020 had issued a similar amnesty scheme for dispute resolution for pending income tax litigations.

Source: The Telegraph online