Chandigarh: Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal Deputy today said VAT refunds will be paid online to industrialists on the basis of their rating.
Making this announcement following a meeting with senior BJP ministers, including Madan Mohan Mittal and Bhagat Chunni Lal, he said the refunds would be paid online into the accounts of the traders or industrialists on the basis of their self assessments from the corpus created by collecting advance tax.
Badal said the funds in the newly evolved corpus would be first used to clear VAT refunds.
At the end of the month, if any funds were left in this corpus, they would be transferred to the Consolidated Fund of the state, he said.
Monthly collections expected to be Rs 200 crore and these collections would be used exclusively to clear the VAT refund of around Rs 100 crore.
Giving further details, the Deputy Chief Minister said the highest tax payer would be adjudged as 'five star payee' and refunds would be paid to himm within 15 days.
Similarly, the VAT refund to 4, 3 and 2 star rated traders would be paid online within 25, 35 and 45 days, respectively.
"The criteria for such ratings would be determined on various parameters including the standing of the company, imports, exports, general turnover, past records and self assessment case file," he said.
Elaborating further, the Deputy Chief Minister said that the Excise and Taxation department would ascertain their self assessments randomly submitted to the department to verify the laid down parameters.
He also said whenever a star rated dealer applies for the refund, the department would take up his case on priority and on the basis of preliminary scrutiny, refund would be transferred within a fixed time.
"Within 45 days of issue of refund, the department will complete thorough scrutiny of all refund applications and in case of any deliberate or fraudulently wrong claim of refund, the department would impose appropriate penalty prescribed in the policy," Badal added.
The Deputy Chief Minister also announced that 200 traders would be awarded for paying the highest amount of taxes in various categories at the time of unveiling the Traders' Policy on November 14.
Industries Minister Madan Mohan Mittal said various measures taken by the SAD-BJP government would not only give relief to the traders but would also make the entire VAT procedure hassle free.
