SHIMLA: In a move to provide a major relief to the small and marginal traders, State Government has rolled out Himachal Pradesh Sadhbhawana Legacy Cases Resolution Scheme, 2023 that will settle around 50,000 cases of pre-GST era under litigation or tax assessment.

The new scheme is expected to benefit both traders and the department of State Taxes and Excise.

It will help to dispose-off all pending legacy cases and recover arrears currently stuck in litigation, said officials. This would allow the stakeholders as well as the department to focus on GST compliances. 

 Chief Minister, Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said, “The Scheme shall be valid initially for a period of 3 months and will be available for the pre-GST taxpayers to resolve the tax liability and disputes".

Under this Scheme, taxpayers will be able to pay the outstanding tax amounts due and be free from any other consequences under the Law, while receiving full waivers of interests and penalties, he added.

This ambitious Scheme will help in disposing-off the pending legacy cases and settlement of arrears which are under litigation or are yet to be assessed.

The dealer is required to pay due tax along-with applicable settlement fee, but this does not offer any waiver of tax component.

Commissioner, State Taxes and Excise Yunus said that the stakeholders may apply under the scheme by visiting the concerned department’s circle office.

The dealers will have to deposit applicable settlement fee online in relevant head of account of subsumed enactment and the State Government aims to generate a revenue collection about Rs. 20 to Rs. 25 crore by settling almost 50,000 pending cases.

The Department had previously introduced a legacy scheme in the year 2019, through which 14,814 cases were disposed-off and revenue of Rs. 393 crore was realized.

Under the second scheme, a total of 20,642 cases were settled and Rs. 19.16 crore revenue was collected, said Yunus.