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At
the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) Regional
Awards presentation, the group of exporters alleged that
the government has no intention of refunding the tax.
Ironically, the state minister for micro, small and medium
enterprises, textiles and tourism, Manabendra Mukherjee,
was present at the function.
The
total outstanding due is Rs 120 crore in the eastern
region, Rs 100 crore in West Bengal and in the Howrah
Foundry belt, it amounts to around Rs 40 crore, the EEPC
stated.
The
group claimed that in spite of making repeated requests to
state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, who happens to be
the chairman of the Empowered Committee on VAT at the
Centre, nothing has been done till date.
“We
have sent the list of exporters entitled for the refunds
thrice but no action has been taken,” said the chairman
of EEPC, Rakesh Shah.
He
also said that the exporters have already paid the Income
Tax on the VAT refunds. Acknowledging the seriousness of
the problem, Mukherjee said: “The issue of VAT is indeed
a genuine problem and the state finance minister is
looking into the matter seriously.”
According
to the EEPC, the empowered committee had stipulated a
timeframe of 90 days within which VAT had to be refunded
to the exporters. While the refunding process was much
faster in other states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, it seems
that in spite of Centre’s assistance it has failed to
make any difference in state, the group said.
“There
seems to be no mechanism like a special cell in the state,
to look into the refund of VAT. The Centre had even
directed that the state governments should disburse VAT
refunds speedily and in the case of any discrepancies in
assessment found later, it would compensate the state
government concerned up to 50 per cent of the amount
paid,” said RP Sehgal, chairman of the eastern region of
the EEPC.
Source
: Kolkata Newsline - New Delhi, India, dated
28/02/2008
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