By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: In a significant development, the Naveen Patnaik led BJD Government in Odisha has given its nod to State Finance Department’s proposal for amendment in Odisha Goods and Services Tax (OGST) Bill, 2017 and also replace Odisha Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 and Odisha Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2020.The State Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Finance Department’s proposals.
With this approval, 12 sections and paragraph 4 of Schedule II of the OGST Act, 2017 shall be amended and Odisha Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 (Odisha Ordinance 5 of 2020) and Odisha Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 (Odisha Ordinance 6 of 2020) shall be replaced.
The Finance Department had proposed to amend the OGST Act to provide the following facilities to the taxpayers and tax authorities. It includes the facilities to:To extend the scope of ineligibility to opt for composition scheme. To delink the date of issuance of debit note from the date of issuance of the underlying invoice for the purpose of availing input tax credit. To empower proper officer to allow cancellation of registration of the registered taxpayers who have voluntarily obtained registration under Section 25 (3) of the said Act.
To grant the power to the Additional or Joint Commissioner to extend the time limit by further 30 days to file an application for revocation of cancellation of registration subject to sufficient cause being shown. To empower the government to specify the categories of services or supplies in respect of which a tax invoice shall be issued along with time and manner for issuance of such invoiceTo provide that a certificate of TDS issued by the deductor of tax shall be issued in such form as may be prescribed.
To make the beneficiary of the transactions of passing on or availing fraudulent Input Tax Credit liable for penalty similar to the penalty leviable on the person who commits such specified offences. To extend punishment to a person who causes to commit the offence of availing fraudulent Input Tax Credit and also to a person who retains benefit thereto making such offences a cognizable and non-bailable offence. To empower the government to prescribe the manner and time limit for ‘taking transitional credit.
To insert a new section 168A to extend due dates for various compliances on the recommendation of GST council during the war, epidemic, flood, drought, fire, cyclone and natural calamities.To empower the government to make provision for issuance of removal of difficulties order for another two years, i.e. till five years from the date of commencement of the OGST Act, 2017. The state Cabinet also approved a proposal for the amendment of the Odisha Local Fund Audit Act, 1948 to include electronic modes for serving surcharge notices and orders to delinquent officials.
Under the existing provisions of the Act, difficulties are being faced to physically serve the surcharge notices and orders to errant officers in time. This is because it’s always not possible to readily track the present address of the officials concerned as they get transferred quite often. For this, the surcharge proceedings could not be finalized expeditiously. With the amendment of the Act, the errant officers will be served notices and orders on the electronic mode in the HRMS (Human Resource Management System) portal in addition to the existing manual modes of service.
