Commercial tax arrears of the Odisha government have mounted to Rs 4694.45 crore (as on April1, 2012). This includes Rs 4344.61 crore of sales tax (Odisha sales tax, Central sales tax and value added tax) dues pending on different organizations.
This information was provided by state finance minister Prasanna Acharya in the assembly.
The organizations with arrears in commercial taxes include Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), OCL India Ltd, Indian Rare Earth Ltd (IREL), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd, Sree Metaliks Ltd and Tata Sponge Iron Ltd to name a few.
The commercial tax arrears have accumulated in the past five years since 2006-07. The dues have piled up as litigations pertaining to these cases are pending in various courts of law.
The state government's demand for commercial taxes was contested by the concerned parties in the Supreme Court, Odisha High Court and sales tax tribunal.By invoking the Odisha Sales Tax (Settlement of Arrears) Act-2011, the state government has realized Rs 4.36 crore and settled 332 cases while 386 other cases are still pending.
Gross arrears under Odisha sales tax, value added tax and Central sales tax stood at Rs 997.16 crore, Rs 740.18 crore and Rs 260.81 crore respectively (as on April 1, 2012).
In 2012-13, the state government has collected Rs 7003.46 crore by way of sales tax till January end, 17.62 per cent growth over Rs 5954.29 crore achieved in the corresponding period of previous fiscal.
