The Tamil Nadu government has announced a new Samadhan scheme with waivers and concessions to pave the way for the settlement of the pending tax dues of about Rs 25,000 crore.
The majority are under the erstwhile Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax and other legacy tax legislations.
The new Samadhan scheme, which was announced by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin seeks to put an end to the pending tax arrears, disputes and appeals between the traders and the State commercial tax department.
As GST came into force on July 1, 2017, about 10 acts erstwhile were all subsumed under GST. But the tax arrears, interests and penalties of the previous regime were pending.
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The scheme has classified the tax dues under five broad categories — Rs 50,000 and below, above Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh, above Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore, above Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crore and above Rs 10 crore.
As per the data available, there are 2,11,607 tax disputes involving 1,42,569 traders. The total tax outstanding amount is Rs 24,895 crore.
The new scheme offers a complete waiver of tax arrears, interest, and penalty if the total tax arrears for an assessment year is below Rs 50,000, and this is for every assessment year, a move that is expected to give a big relief to the small traders.
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For the tax dues that fall in the category of Rs 50,000-Rs10 lakh, traders can just pay 20 per cent of the dues or by paying a portion of the tax, interest, and fine to settle the disputes once and for all. In the other three categories, traders could pay the mentioned portion of the tax, interest, and fine and move out.
The new Samadhan scheme will commence on October 16, 2023, and will be in force till February 14, 2024.
