SHILLONG, June 23: Minister in charge of Taxation, James Sangma, on Wednesday, gainsaid the allegation levelled by the Opposition that the One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme for recovery of outstanding Value Added Tax (VAT) from around 230 fuel stations across the state is illegal. He also maintained that there is either a misconception or lack of knowledge on the part of the Opposition as the OTS has been legally vetted by the Law department before being rolled out.
James went on to add that the state government will now initiate legal proceedings against those who have not availed the scheme.
“They are wrong and there is nothing illegal about it. The OTS amnesty schemes have been given by Taxation departments of various other states and this is an opportunity given to people who have outstanding dues so that flexibility (to waive off the surcharges and pay off the outstanding amounts) can be availed and they can pay their dues to the government, which would be either written off as bad debt or continue for a long period of time,” James said.
“OTS is an amnesty scheme of the Government of Meghalaya and it is very much within the purview of law,” he added.
Reacting to Leader of Opposition Dr Mukul Sangma’s recent criticism of the OTS scheme, the minister said, “Amnesty scheme has been duly vetted by the Law department. We don’t know what the Leader of the Opposition is referring to, but due diligence has been followed and done to ensure that the vetting by the Law department is taken before the scheme was rolled out”.
The minister also maintained that since they stopped issuing C Forms, many petrol pumps have stopped operating because they cannot transport and sell petrol without the forms. “Till the time these pumps do not clear their outstanding dues, we will not be issuing C Forms; that is the measure we are going about,” he said.
Informing that there are 229 petrol pumps in the state, James revealed that total tax collected from these outlets for the financial year 2018-2019 as on March 31, 2021, is Rs 445.77 crore, while Rs 367.86 crore and 529.88 crore were collected in 2019-20 and 2020-2021 respectively.
Out of the total 229 fuel outlets, 58 have arrears ranging from as little as Rs 5,000 to a few crores, James informed.
“The total arrears remaining as on April 1, 2020, are Rs 79.48 crore and total arrears recovered during 2020-21 are Rs 5.71 crore. The total arrears to be written off as irrecoverable are Rs 23.87 crore and the total arrears yet to be recovered are Rs 49.90 crore,” the minister added.
