Maharashtra Government has Extended the Pre-GST Tax Arrear Amnesty Scheme

The amnesty scheme for settlement of arrears of tax, interest, penalty or late fee prior to the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax introduced by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government has been extended by state finance minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Terming it the Maharashtra Settlement of Arrears of Tax, Interest, Penalty or Late Fee Act, 2023, Fadnavis in his maiden budget speech said under the scheme, the government will grant a full waiver of arrears, if the arrears for any year are Rs 2 lakh or less as per the statutory order. He said this would benefit small traders in nearly one lakh cases.

Also, dealers having arrears up to Rs 50 lakh or less as per the statutory order will pay only 20% of the total arrears and the remaining 80% will be waived. This, he said, would benefit around 80,000 cases. The scheme was introduced by the MVA in its 2021-22 budget. It had allowed full waiver for arrears below Rs 10,000 and had benefited around 89,890 cases.

An outstanding amount of Rs 81 crore was waived off. Further, traders withdrew 20,000 nonappealable claims to take advantage of the amnesty scheme, 2022. An amount of Rs 2,234 crore has been collected under this scheme while arrears to the tune of Rs 6,947 crore had been waived.

The new scheme will be in force from May 1 to October 31, 2023. It will be applicable for the arrears pending as on May 1, 2023.