Office of the
Commissioner of State Tax.
Maharashtra State, 1s1 Floor,
GST Bhavan, Mazgaon,
Mumbai-400010.
INTERNAL CIRCULAR
(RESTRICTED CIRCULAR FOR OFFICE USE ONLY)
No. Add. CST (VATI-3/ Assessment & Adjudication/2019-20/B- 201
Dt. – 20/03/2020
Internal Circular No. 04A of 2020.
To,
Sub: Passing of Assessment Orders manually (outside the SAP system) in cases which are getting barred by limitation on 31.03.2020.
Background: We all are aware that the world is in the midst of an unprecedented health scare in the form of the Corona Virus Infection and its resultant health problems. India has been one of the affected countries and we need to take utmost precautionary measures to tackle this menace of corona virus infection. Efforts taken by the Indian government to stall this epidemic in its stride have been appreciated the world over. Government of Maharashtra too is handling this issue very proactively and has instructed all the state government departments to ensure that at any given time, the attendance of the employees in the office should not be more than 50% of the usual attendance on any given day till 31st March 2020.
We also know that assessment proceeding for some periods under MVAT Act, CST Act & Allied Acts are getting barred by limitation on 31.03.2020. In order to ensure that the attendance of the employees does not exceed 50% of the usual count as per the instructions of Government of Maharashtra, officers and staff have been asked to attend office on alternate days till 31St March 2020. This will hamper their pending assessment work as the automation system of department can only be accessed either via LAN connectivity which is available at MGSTD offices across Maharashtra or through VPN based access using laptops. VPN access is given to limited users who have official laptops but assessment orders are also passed by the Asst. Commissioners and State Tax Officers who do not have the option to remotely connect through VPN, such officers would not be in a position to key-in assessment order contents and the assessment order using SAP system from remote places like their home or any other place outside the office.
I) Passing of Assessment Orders manually outside the SAP system: In order to follow the government directives pertaining to attendance and to also ensure that no assessment is barred by limitation, all the officers are instructed to pass the assessment orders on the SAP system and where it is not possible to pass assessment orders on system, in such cases the assessment orders may be passed manually outside the SAP system.
There are some post-assessment functions like application for rectification, payment against order, compliance to the order, appeal application against the order, and harvesting of the data for preparation of reports which cannot be carried out online unless and until an order is passed using the SAP System and the same is served electronically to the assesse. If an order is passed manually, all these functions will have to be carried out manually too. To overcome these difficulties, following instructions are being issued.
II) Applicability of this circular: The instructions contained in this circular will be applicable only to the assessment periods which are getting barred by limitation on 31st March 2020. Assessment/rectification/review orders which are not going to be barred by limitation on 31st March 2020 should not be passed manually.
III) Procedure for Manual Issuance of Assessment Orders: Following instructions must be followed scrupulously by all the assessing authorities in the State.
1. Wherever an officer is in a position to pass the said order using SAP system simultaneously complying with all the instructions regarding attendance in office, then invariably the order should be passed through the SAP
2. The orders which are passed manually must be in Form 303 under MVAT Act and in Form VII B under CST Act. Formats of the orders are attached to this circular. The attached forms are in word format and can be edited to enter the details pertaining to the case.
3. The assessment orders so issued must he sealed, dated, stamped and signed by the issuing authority before delivering it to the assessee but the stamps and seals must not he carried home by the officers. They can get the orders and demand notices stamped on the day they attend the office.
4. Regarding the service of the said orders and demand notices, officers shall follow the provisions of law diligently.
5. No order should be served on the dealer without taking entry into the DBA,
6. The DBA entries of the orders passed manually should he marked as `Manual’ in the DBA itself. This entry should contain date of passing of order and date of service of order.
7. The list of all the orders which are passed manually should he submitted with the KKPI for the month of March 2020.
8. Data entry of all the orders which are passed manually is required to be taken in the system database. There is no provision of data entry in the system hence the manually passed orders should be uploaded into the SAP Assessment Module by 11th of May 2020. Concerned joint commissioners, on or before 15th May 2020, shall certify that all the manually issued orders have been entered into the system. Utmost care should be taken while entering the data into the system so as to ensure that the figures in the manually served order and the data entered into system do not have any discrepancies.
9. While uploading the manually passed orders in the system, the officers shall enter the original dates of notices passed manually.
10. While completing the hearing activity, the officer shall attach the scanned copy of the orders passed manually into the system.
11. While entering the content of the assessment order, officer shall, invariably write This Order was passed manually on ../../2020 and served on the dealer on ../../2020 as per the instructions of Internal Circular 04A of 2020 dated 20/03/2020“. These orders will not be served electronically to the dealers as the speaking orders will already have been delivered to them manually, the content of the original assessment order need not be written here once again. So the content of all such orders will have only the above sentence and nothing else.
12. The officers will take all the actions such as approving the orders, digitally signing them, order service confirmation of such orders (served manually) once they arc entered into the system
13. If a manually passed order is entered into the system, the officer, without exception, shall refrain from taking the printouts of the system order as it will not be a proper assessment order but just a document created for the purpose of data entry into the system.
14. This electronic uploading of the order will be for the purpose of updating the database and for the post assessment actions such as recovery, rectification, appeal and payment against order only and the date of manual service of the said orders will be considered for all the legal matters involved therein.
All the officers are hereby instructed to scrupulously follow the guidelines Given here in this circular.
Sd-
(Sanjeev Kumar)
Commissioner of State Tax,
Maharashtra State, Mumbai.
No. Add. CST(VAT)-3/Assessment/2019-20/B- 201
Dt. – 20/03/2020
Internal Circular No. 04A of 2020.
(C. M. Kamble)
Additional Commissioner of State Tax,
(VAT)-03,Maharashtra State.
Copy forwarded to the Joint Commissioner of State Tax (Mahavikas) with a request to upload this Internal Circular on the Employee Corner of the Departments Web-site.
Copy submitted with compliments to,‑
(1) The Deputy Secretary, Finance Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai-21 for information.
(2) Accounts Officer, Sales Tax Revenue Audit, Mumbai and Nagpur.
Dear All,
Please share the sales tax VAT act – related for assessment time limit within 5 years. Based on that we have to remove our old pending cases from IDT.
Mail ID : t.valliappan@lavazza.co.in