Giving relaxation to industry, the department also announced to offer an option to registered dealers to file their tax returns in old format while the date of filling tax returns has been extended from July 31 till August 20.
An official spokesman of Punjab Excise and Taxation Department said the decision to this effect was taken after reviewing the representations received from trade bodies.
The department has also given an option to reserve their input tax credit as they deem fit.
Yesterday, Punjab minister Anil Joshi said the ongoing policy of collecting advance tax on stock from traders virtually ruined them economically and said he would prefer to extend support to traders than to continue as Cabinet Minister.
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It has also been decided that dealers need not give stock of each item but may give the tax slab-wise stock.
He said it has been observed on March 31, 2014 that some dealers had shown their stock as high as 50 per cent of their annual sales which is contrary to general trade practices.
Department officials stated as per current analysis, about 90 per cent of state's total VAT collection were contributed by only 3,000 dealers.
In 2013-14, as many as 1.44 lakh dealers did not pay tax at all." Another 27,993 dealers paid less than Rs 10,000 VAT," he said.
Since conducting physical inspections over a large number of dealers would have created a hue and cry and is against the state policy of eliminating Inspector Raj, he said.