The following amendments proposed by Maharashtra Bill No. L. A. BILL No. XVIII of 2016 has received the assent of the Governor on 26th April 2016 and has made following modification in Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002:
Section 16 : Rejection / Cancellation of Registration Certificate
- The prescribed authority may pass a rejection order without giving an opportunity of being heard but after intimating the applicant, if the registration application is:
– not complete or
– documents required have not been uploaded on mahavat.gov.inor
– documents are inconsistent or
– prescribed conditions are not fulfilled
Further, if the applicant complies with all the discrepancies intimated within 30 days from the date of intimation of rejection order and if such compliance is approved by the prescribed authority then the application so rejected, shall stand restored. However, the applicant shall be eligible to rectify the discrepancies only once.
- If any person has obtained registration by fraud or by misrepresentation of facts then the Commissioner may cancel the registration certificate with effect from such date as he may deem fit after giving a reasonable opportunity of being heard to the dealer.
Section 20 (Returns & Self-assessment)
A revised return for any omission or incorrect statement may be furnished at any time before a notice of assessment is served or before the expiry of a period prescribed for furnishing the audit report i.e. within 9 months and 15 days of the end of the year (earlier 10 Months) to which the report relates to, whichever is earlier.
Section 23 (Assessment)
Returns for the period commencing on or after 01.04.2012 and filed within the due date would be assessed on the basis of such return. Further if assessment order is not made within 4 years from the end of the year to which such returns relate then such returns shall be deemed to have been accepted.
An intimation of assessment proceeding shall be communicated to the dealer within 6 months before the date of expiry of the period of limitation for assessment. If the dealer agrees with the intimation and files the return or revised return along with full payment of tax and interest, then a confirmation order shall be passed and the assessment proceedings shall be deemed to have been closed.
Section 26 (Appeals)
An appeal can also be preferred against the order of Advance Ruling Authority.
A new Section 28A (Determination of tax liability as per fair market price) has been inserted by providing that during the course of any proceedings if any transaction is entered for a sale price which is below the fair market price (FMP) so as to pay less tax, then the Commissioner shall determine the tax liability as per the FMP while passing an order in such cases.
Section 31 (Deduction of tax at source)
It has been provided to transfer the credit of TDS by the contractor to the subcontractor for the TDS deducted by principal on payment made to a contractor. Further, the employer awarding the contract shall be liable to obtain registration for TDS & such TDS return shall be filed by him. No registration is required to be obtained by an employer if he is already registered under the Act. Penalty upto the amount of tax deductible may be imposed for not obtaining such registration. A further penalty of upto Rs. 5,000 may be imposed for failure to submit the return. The employer may also furnish a revised return on or before the expiry of a period of 9 months from the end of the year to which the return relates.
Section 55 (Advance Ruling)
This section has been substituted with the following:
- The Commissioner or the ARA shall make an advance ruling within 90 days from the date of acceptance of the application for the questions prescribed.
- Application may be withdrawn within 30 days from the date of its submission.
- No application shall be accepted where the question raised in the application:
- is already pending before the Tribunal! Bombay High Court! Supreme Court or
- involves a transaction which is designed apparently for the avoidance of tax.
- The acceptance of the application shall be communicated within 30 days from the date of submission.
- The Advance Ruling (AR) shall be binding on all the officers, appellate authority or on the ARA! Commissioner for similarly situated persons.
- The AR shall not affect the liability of the applicant or of any other person similarly situated in respects of any sale or purchase affected prior to the Advance Ruling.
- The appeal ! rectification against the AR order can be filed within 30 days.
Section 70 (Power to collect statistics)
A sub-section (3) has been inserted stating that any person who fails to furnish information shall be liable to a penalty of a sum not exceeding Rs. 1 lakh and in case of continuing default for a period beyond 2 months then a further penalty of Rs. 1,000 for every day.
Section 56 (Determination of disputed questions) has been deleted.
MAHARASHTRA ACT No. XV OF 2016.
(First published, after having received the assent of the Governor in the ‘ ” Maharashtra Government Gazette’, on the 26th April 2016).
An Act further to amend certain tax laws in operation in the State of Maharashtra.
WHEREAS it is expedient further to amend certain tax laws in operation in the State of Maharashtra, for the purposes hereinafter appearing; it is hereby enacted in the Sixty-seventh Year of the Republic of India as follows :—
CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY
Short title and commencement
1. (1) This Act may be called the Maharashtra Tax Laws (Levy, Amendment and Validation) Act, 2016.
(2) Save as otherwise provided in this Act,—
(a) sections 5, 6 and 8 shall come into force with effect from the 1st April 2016;
(b) sections 9, 13, 16 and 17 shall come into force with effect from the 1st May 2016;
(c) sections 2, 3, sub-section (1) of section 10 and sub-section (2) of section 15 shall come into force from such date as the State Government may by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint and different dates may be appointed for different provisions;
(d) remaining sections shall come into force on the date of publication of this Act in the Official Gazette.
Download Full Text of MAHARASHTRA ACT No. XV OF 2016
