MAHARASHTRA SALES TAX DEPARTMENT (MSTD)
GOVERNMENT OF MAHARASHTRA
EASE OF DOING BUSINESS INITIATIVE BY DEPARTMENT OF SALES TAX
A) Starting a Business:
1) e-Registration:
i) Registration process and payment of Fee for registration is end to end online for all the Acts administered by the Department (MVAT Act, CST Act, Entry Tax Act, Profession Tax Act, Luxury Tax Act and Sugarcane Purchase Tax Act.
ii) There is one single unified application for registration for all the Acts. Pl refer Trade Circular 18T of 2016.
iii) List of the documents required to be uploaded for registration is available in the “Whats New” section of the Portal of the Department.
iv) No physical application or the documents which are required along with the application are accepted by the Department.
v) No visits are paid by the departmental authorities for grant of the Registration Certificate (R.C.).
vi) Registration Certificate is issued mostly in one working day if the application is correct and complete. If some defect is found in the application, Defect memo is generated and is sent to the applicant on the registered email of the dealer. If Registration Authority do not take any action within 3 working days, R. C. is auto granted to the applicant.
2) Getting Digitally Signed Registration Certificate to the Applicant from the Portal of the Department:
MSTD has issued Trade Circular 18T of 2016 dt. 24/5/2016. As per the said Trade Circular, the dealer need not visit MSTD Office for collection of Registration Certificate. It is sent to the dealer on the same day on his registered mail ID. Registration Certificate is also available on MSTD Portal in downloadable pdf format. Dealer can download digitally signed Registration Certificate form the MSTD Portal through his secured login credentials.
3) Dealer Search Facility:
Anyone can check the R.C. of the dealer if TIN or PAN is known. Please follow the following procedure. Log on to www.mahavat.gov.in → Click on e-Registration → Click on “Dealer Status” → Enter 11 Digit TIN and click on “Get Status”. PAN can also be used in place of TIN as search criterion.
B) Paying Taxes:
1) Payments:
E-Payment facility is already available through 25 Nationalised Banks. It is provided through Government Receipt Accounting System (GRAS) for some of the Acts administered by the Department. Additional facility of e-Payment SBI e-Pay made available to the Taxpayer (Pl refer attached Trade Circular 32T of 2016). SBI e-Pay is connected with the Nationalised Banks, Private Banks and Co-operative Banks.
2) Returns:
3) Return is made invoice based. Nearly 80% of the return fields are auto populated from invoice based Sales and Purchase Annexures which are part of the return template itself. Returns under MVAT and CST are prepared at the same time from the same set of Sales and Purchase Annexures. Following registers namely Sales Register, Purchase Register, Sales Return Register, Purchase Return Register and Cash Register are required to be maintained by any business entity. This is the minimum requirement for any business entity. Dealer has to maintain these books of accounts in regular course of his business to run the business in seamless manner. He need not have to prepare any separate set of books of accounts or statements for the purpose of preparation of returns. The invoice data can be copy pasted in to Sales/ Purchase Annexures from these books of accounts. Dealer is not required to make summary of every field of return from his books of accounts. Hence time required for summarization of data is reduced to almost nil. It reduced return preparation time significantly (Pl refer attached Trade Circular 22T of 2016).
4) Billing Software: is provided by the Department free of cost. It is available on the website of the Department (in Dealer’s Services). If the dealer generates invoices using this software, then Sales and Purchase Annexures are auto generated.
5) Multiple Revision of Returns: Dealer can revise the return multiple times under MVAT and CST for the F.Y. 2015-16 on wards U/S 20(4)(a) of the MVAT Act.
6) Refund: Refund is governed by Sec 51 of the MVAT Act, 2002. There is a Special Refund Scheme for Exporters. They are required to enroll as exporter and also require to fulfill some criterion. 95% of the refund is granted without audit within 10 days from the date of application of refund. Refund is also granted against Bank Guarantee (B. G.) (Sec 51(3)(b) of the MVAT Act, 2002) within 20 days of the date of application for the refund without audit. There is Fast Track Refund Scheme mostly for the reputed manufacturers. There are certain conditions to be fulfilled to get enrolled for this scheme. Refund is granted within 10 days from the date of application for refund without any Audit or B.G. For all these schemes, pl refer Internal Circular 13A of 2010 and Trade Circular 22T of 2010.
As per Trade Circular 5T of 2016, eligible refunds of the dealer shall be granted:
i) within 45 days from the due date of filing of Audit Report (if the dealer is eligible to file Audit Report) and refund application is filed before due date of filing Audit Report.
ii) within 45 days from the due date for filing of Audit Report in cases where dealer is not eligible to file Audit Report.
iii) within 45 days from the due date for filing of refund application in F 501, in cases where dealer is eligible to file Audit Report and refund application is filed after due date for filing of Audit Report.
7) Grant of Refund Through NEFT:
i) Refund disbursement through NEFT from 1 st Oct 2015.
ii) Dealers received refund through NEFT in T+1 or T+2 days.
iii) All over the Maharashtra State, dealers refund disbursement is made through SINGLE NEFT Desk which is situated at Mazgaon, Mumbai.
iv) Error free and quick disbursement of refund through NEFT. Maharashtra among the pioneer states whose dealers receive refund through NEFT.
8) Entry Tax Return:
Return under Entry Tax is made online in 2016 by the Trade Circular. Pl refer Trade Circular 33T of 2016. All the other returns under various Acts administered by the Department are already online.
9) No Border Check Posts:
Maharashtra State has not established the Check Posts across the Borders. It made entry of the goods in the State and outside the State hassle-free.
10) E-CST Declarations:
No need to visit the Department for the want of e-CST Declarations. ECST Declarations cab be obtained by applying online on the Portal of the Department.
C) Computerised Desk Audit (CDA):
Every year Department selects the cases for Computerised Desk Audit (CDA) based on the parameters fixed by the Department. Department publishes such list on the Portal. Facility to comply online to the CDA findings is made available on the Department’s Portal. If the dealer pays as per the findings of the CDA and files revised return, this audit proceeding is closed. If the dealer fails to pay as per the CDA findings, then such cases are selected for Issue Based Audit. The list of the cases selected for the Issue based Audit is also published by the Department on the website. Department has issued Trade Circular 37T of 2016 which is attached. Eleven parameters are set by the Department for CDA. The List of the dealers who are selected for the CDA is available in Whats New Section of the website of the Department. List of the dealers who are selected for the Assessment or Issue Based Audit is also available at the same place.
D) Establishment of Help Desk:
Helpline for providing basic services assisting users in preparing and filing returns is established. Help Line 1800225900 provided to the dealers to resolve their issues. Dealer can lock the complaint on this Toll Free number. Ticket No. is generated. Department has also provided Help Desk Support through helpdesksupport@mahavat.gov.in. Apart from this support, Centralised Help Desk is established in the Mazgaon (Mumbai) HQ of MSTD. Help Desk are also established at all the MSTD Locations throughout the State and also at the Nodal Division level. Screen Shots for Help Desk are also provided.
E) Restructuring of the Sales Tax Department:
Department has formed Nodal Division based on Geographic Location from 1/1/2016. Every TIN is attached to some Nodal Officer. This is a shift from Function Based System (Pl refer attached Trade Circular 20T of 2015).
F) SAP Based Automation:
For giving better services to the Taxpayers, Department shifted to SAP based automated system from May 2016 (Pl refer attached Trade Circular 18T of 2018).
G) Advance Ruling:
The provision of the Advance Ruling is given U/S 55 of the MVAT Act and is fully operational. Notification No. VAT/AMD-2015/1A/15/ADM- 8 dtd 9/5/2016 is issued (Pl refer attached Notification) and Advance Ruling Authority is constituted (Notification attached). Screen Shots for Advance Ruling is also attached.
H) Some Important Statistics:
i) e-Payment Received During F.Y. 2016-17: Rs. 86,600/- Cr.
ii) No. of e-Returns filed during F.Y. 2016-17 (VAT and other Acts excluding PT): 5037623
iii) No. of e-Returns filed for Profession Tax during: 553333
iv) Refund Claim Disbursed During the F.Y. 2016-17 through NEFT: Rs. 5765.11 Cr.
v) No. of e-Registration Certificates granted under VAT, CST and other Acts (excluding PT) during F.Y. 2016-17 is 146570. Number of e Registrations granted under PT during the same F.Y. is 125228.
