Prasanna Acharya

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 18: The Odisha government today said various commercial establishments in the state have tax arrear over Rs 4,500 crore.

“The cumulative outstanding tax dues against various commercial establishments stand at Rs 4,694.45 crore, of which sales tax arrears (Odisha sales tax, central sales tax and value added tax) alone is Rs 4,344.61 crore,” Odisha finance minister Prasanna Acharya told the Assembly today.

Expressing concern over the matter, Congress deputy leader Chakradhar Paik and other members wanted to know the reason behind the failure of the state government, which has been claiming about bringing fiscal discipline in the state and achieving a fiscal turnaround.

The minister explained that most of the outstanding tax claims were locked in court cases.

As many as 12,595 cases were pending in various courts and tribunals. In many of the cases, the courts had passed stay order.

As many as 5,726 cases were pending in appellate tribunals, 1,463 cases were pending in the high court and 192 cases in the Supreme Court, Acharya said.

He said commercial tax officials were sealing bank accounts of defaulters and initiated tax recovery proceedings to get back outstanding dues. Besides, the state government had enacted the Odisha Sales Tax (settlement of arrears) Act.

“While Rs 4.36 crore arrears have been settled through onetime settlement in 332 cases, another 386 cases are pending,” he said.

Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh said the amount recovered through one time settlement was meagre. “While the state government is catching small fry, it’s going soft on big business houses,” Singh said.

Acharya said big defaulters, including a few central public sector units, had taken the shelter of the court. Their outstanding arrear ranged between Rs 1 crore and Rs 60 crore, he said, adding that the government lawyers had been instructed to speed up the trial and disposal of pending cases.

Acharya said that tax and non-tax revenue collection had been on the rise, despite global slow down.

“We have set a target of collecting tax and non-tax revenue of Rs 20,810.28 crore in the present year as against a collection of Rs 19,855.73 crore during 2011-12. By December end, we collected a revenue of Rs 15,511.49 crore as against Rs 12789.91 crore in the corresponding period in the previous year,” he said.

He said the state government had simplified the tax collection procedure under the value added tax regime. Dealers were now asked to file returns with their self-assessment on the basis of which the tax collection was being undertaken.

Now, people can also pay tax online.