The Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) has expressed serious displeasure over value added tax (VAT) and sales tax arrears worth Rs 1,07,576.01 crore pending as on December 2018. Pendency of cases in various Tribunals and Courts, non traceable dealers and non availability of property are quoted as reasons for the long pending recovery. Out of the total dues amounting to Rs 1,07,576.01 crore, Rs 97,895,71 crore are of VAT and Rs 9,680.30 crore are of sales tax.
The sales tax department has recovered Rs 4,040.03 crore out of the Rs 8,953.15 crores due from January to March 2019. Further, out of Rs 2,100.99 crore pertaining to revenue recovery certificates, recovery of Rs 9.40 crore was made from January to March last year and recovery of remaining dues was in progress.
About Rs 2,100.99 crore was pending recovery under Maharashtra Land Revenue Code 1966 which is free from any dispute. CAG has warned that the department needs to take immediate action for its recovery as with the passage of time, possibility of recovery may become remote.
CAG has pointed out that a major portion of the revenue Rs 47,357.61 crore is locked up in appeals with the departmental authorities. The department has been asked to chalk out an action plan for early finalization of the appeal cases.
Nearly Rs 4,058.72 crore was recoverable from the dealers who were untraceable. CAG has asked the department to trace these dealers in the interest of revenue collection.As far as refunds under the Goods & Services Tax is concerned, CAG has observed that 2,069 applications involving Rs 1,113.48 crore were pending for finalization.
CAG said due to the non availability of the refund module export details as well as inward supply details were verified by calling for the details from the refund claimants. Audit checked 217 refund claims and it was observed that though the provisional refunds were given in time, the final refunds were delayed by more than 60 days in respect of 194 cases while in the remaining 23 cases refund was allowed within 60 days from the date of granting provisional returns.
CAG has asked the Maharashtra government to make the refund module on GSTN functional so that refunds are made to the registered tax payers in a timely manner.
