Finance Minister P Chidambaram is likely to announce sops for large taxpayer units (LTUs)in the coming Budget. The sops may include inter-unit transfer of any excess Cenvat credit for both excise and service tax, inter-unit movement of capital goods without payment of duty and refund or rebate within 30 days of filing claims.LTUs, to be made operational from the next fiscal, aim to provide a single-window clearance for excise, income tax, corporate tax and service tax returns filed by entities. Initially, there will be 900 such units.Joining LTUs is optional for industry. But officials said two additional optional criteria had been included to identify units which would qualify for using LTUs. While payment of Rs 5 crore in excise through personal ledger accounts during financial year 2004-05 would be the main criterion, the other two would be payment of service tax of Rs 5 crore during 2004-05 and payment of advance (income) tax of Rs 10 crore during 2004-05, a finance ministry official added.Officials said the ministry was making changes in the Cenvat credit rules to allow a taxpayer the option to transfer any excess credit for both excise and service tax from one manufacturing unit or a service providing unit to another. This facility is not available to a taxpayer at the moment.In addition, for the purposes of simplification, a taxpayer will be allowed to remove capital goods and inputs from one unit to another without payment of any duty. A taxpayer at present has to pay excise duty on such transfers between two units and claim a refund later.The ministry is also considering a facility to allow direct credit of income tax to bank accounts of taxpayers.Another incentive being provided to taxpayers is that all cases where showcause or demand notices have been issued but not adjudicated will stand transferred to LTUs and be decided by them.
