'Filing of states' tax returns being simplified'

Kolkata, Mar 24: In order to simplify procedures and further rationalise the sales tax rates under VAT regime, the government has initiated a number of steps including the formation of a Settlement Commission for early settlement of disputes by next month.

This was announced here today by the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes West Bengal H K Dwivedi while participating in an interactive session with members of the century old Calcutta Chamber of Commerce.

Fully subscribing to the largescale complaints and views from the members that highly complicated return forms coupled with indifferent attitudes of employees in providing assitance to the assesses were the prime reasons for very low number of returns being filed in the state, Mr Dwivedi said all out efforts were now being initiated to simplify the filing of tax return procedures, change the mindset of concerned employees and introduce modernisation and computerisation of every department for better results.

Elaborating some of the steps in this direction, the Commissioner said apart from setting up the Settlement Commission by next month to redress bilateral disputes early, the introduction of E-filing of returns was at the final stages and was likely to be made effective from later this year. Steps were also being taken to ensure faster refund to the assesses, Mr Dwivedi informed.

When his attention was drawn towards a far better tax collection mechanism in a number of Value Added Tax(VAT) enabled states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Mr Dwivedi claimed that despite severe constraints West Bengal had recorded over 17 per cent growth in terms of collection of taxes during the current fiscal and had registered about 62,000 new trading houses under VAT.

Referring to the comparatively poor return of filing of tax returns by the assesses in the state vis-a-vis several other states, Mr Dwivedi urged the members to take advantage of several incentive schemes, announced by the state government in its recent budget, and comply with them as per law.

In this connection he also assured the CCC members of all cooperation and assistance in filing their returns besides addressing their various tax related problems in a "free, fair, transperent and at the shortest possible time".

Earlier welcoming Mr Dwivedi, who assumed his charge recently, CCC President H V Patodia highlighted a number of problems being faced by the members while filing their returns and sought immediate and direct intervenrtion of the Commissioner in redressing them at the earliest.

UNI