DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Sunday launched One Time Settlement Scheme-2025 for traders and shopkeepers, according to an official statement.

Speaking on the occasion after launching the scheme from Kurukshetra, Saini said a transparent and equitable taxation system is essential for economic prosperity and good governance in the state.

If the tax system is simple and effective, then traders, entrepreneurs and investors benefit and economic activities grow rapidly, he said.

The chief minister said the One Time Settlement Scheme-2025 will provide great relief to thousands of taxpayers, especially small shopkeepers, entrepreneurs, and traders.

He said the OTS-2025 is for those taxpayers of Haryana who could not pay the outstanding amount of their taxes due to various reasons. Under this scheme, taxpayers with dues up to Rs 10 lakh will get a rebate of up to Rs 1 lakh.

This scheme will remain open for the next six months.

He appealed to taxpayers to pay their dues as soon as possible. He also said the state government had started a dispute resolution programme to solve the problems of people of all sections, under which various departments started schemes with different names. The OTS-2025 is also a part of the same series, he said.

Saini said the excise and taxation department of Haryana was facing great difficulty in recovering the outstanding taxes due to various reasons.

"Therefore, we implemented the 'One Time Settlement Scheme' to reduce the outstanding taxes and litigation and expedite the recovery of outstanding amounts. While implementing this scheme will provide relief to taxpayers, it will also increase revenue collection," he said.

This scheme will be based on the cumulative assessed outstanding amount. Under it, there will be complete exemption from penalty amount and interest amount.

He said in this scheme, the government has created three slabs for the payment of outstanding taxes for the convenience of taxpayers.

For payment of cumulative assessed outstanding tax up to Rs 10 lakh, the taxpayer will have to pay 40 per cent after deducting the exemption of up to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 10 lakh. For cumulative assessed outstanding tax liabilities of more than Rs 10 lakh and up to Rs 10 crore, the taxpayer will have to pay 50 per cent of the amount. Similarly, the taxpayer will have to pay 100 per cent of the cumulative assessed outstanding tax liabilities of more than Rs 10 crore. Taxpayers with settlement amount of more than Rs 10 lakh outstanding tax have been given the option to make payment in two installments.

The Chief Minister said some new initiatives have been taken in the GST rules. Now, for the convenience of taxpayers, the audits of the last three to four years to be done under Section 65 of Haryana GST Act, 2017 will be done in one go. Due to this, traders will not have to visit the department again and again.

Similarly, to increase transparency, the government has decided to install CCTV cameras in every ETO and DETC office rooms. He said other suggestions received include GST exemption on agricultural equipment, automation of GST refund, annual self-assessment instead of monthly and increasing the limit of issuing bills from Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore. The Haryana Government will recommend these suggestions to the GST Council.

He said the state government is in favour of reforms and every possible effort has been made to solve the problems of traders. Policies have been simplified by taking suggestions from traders. Traders have an important contribution in the development of the state.

(editor@dailyworld.in)