The following Act of the Kerala State Legislature is hereby published for general information. The Bill as passed by the Legislative Assembly received the assent of the Governor of Kerala on the 31st day of March, 2018.
By order of the Governor,
B. G Harindranath,
Law Secretary.
ACT 5 OF 2018
EXTRACT OF THE KERALA FINANCE ACT, 2018
An Act to give effect to certain financial proposals of the Government of Kerala for the Financial Year 2018-2019.
Preamble.-Whereas, it is expedient to give effect to certain financial proposals of the Government of Kerala for the Financial Year 2018-2019;
Be it enacted in the Sixty-ninth Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
1. Short title and Commencement.-
(1) This Act may be called the Kerala Finance Act, 2018.
(2) Save as otherwise provided in this Act, it shall come into force on the 1st day of April, 2018.
10. Amendment of Act 30 of 2004.—
In the Kerala Value Added Tax Act, 2003 (30 of 2004),-
(1) in section 2, after clause (xxiv), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:-
"(xxiva) "Joint Commissioner (Appeals)" means any person appointed to be a Joint Commissioner (Appeals) under sub-section (3) of section 3;";
(2) in section 3,-
(a) in sub-section (3), after the words and symbol "Joint Commissioners,", the words, brackets and symbol "Joint Commissioner (Appeals)," shall be inserted;
(b) in the proviso to sub-section (4), after the words "discretion of the", the words, brackets and symbol "Joint Commissioner (Appeals)," shall be inserted;
(3) in section 24, in the fourth proviso to sub-section (1), for the words and figures "31st March, 2018", the words and figures "31st March, 2019" shall be substituted;
(4) in section 25, in the third proviso to sub-section (1), for the words and figures "31st March, 2018" the words and figures "31st March, 2019" shall be substituted;
(5) to section 25D, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:-
"Provided that dealers who have opted to pay differential amount of tax under this section, but has not paid the amount or has only paid the amount partly, shall pay the balance amount outstanding as on 31st March, 2018, in twenty-four equal monthly instalments on or before 31st March, 2020.";
(6) in section 25E,-
(a) in sub-section (1),-
(i) for the words "31st March, 2016", the words "31st March, 2017" shall be substituted;
(ii) the following proviso shall be added, namely:-
"Provided that the dealers who had failed to take registration under the Act may also settle their cases relating to the period up to 31st March, 2017, under this section on payment of registration fee at the prescribed rate for each such year and an amount equal to registration fee as penalty, in addition to the tax payable under this section.";
(b) in sub-section (2), for the words and figures "30th September, 2017", the words and figures "30th June, 2018" shall be substituted;
(c) in sub-section (5), for the words and figures "31st December, 2017", the words and figures "30th September, 2018" shall be substituted;
(d) sub-section (7) shall be omitted;
(7) in section 31A,-
(a) in sub-section (5), for the words and figures "30th September, 2017" the words and figures "30th June, 2018" shall be substituted;
(b) in sub-section (7), for the words and figures, "31st December, 2017", the words and figures "30th September, 2018" shall be substituted;
(8) after section 31A, the following section shall be inserted, namely:-
"31B. Waiver of certain arrears and penalty.-
Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the interest accrued under sub-sections (5) and (6) of section 31 of this Act, on tax due or accrued under sub-section (2) of section 8 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (Central Act 74 of 1956) and penalty under section 67 and section 68 of this Act, imposed on non-payment or short payment of tax due or assessed under sub-section (2) of section 8 of the said Act on the inter-state sale of arecanut shall be waived subject to the following conditions:
(a) the dealers who have received assessment orders before 30th April, 2018 shall file their option for waiver before the assessing authority on or before 31st May, 2018;
(b) dealers who receives assessment orders after 30th April, 2018 shall file the option within a month from the date on which the assessment orders are received on or before 31st March, 2019, whichever is earlier:
Provided that the Commissioner may, for sufficient reasons extent the date for filing of option;
(c) such dealers shall pay the entire tax assessed in lumpsum or in 36 equal monthly instalments, starting on the date on which the assessing authority intimates the tax amount to be paid under the option;
(d) cases relating to the above assessment pending in all Courts and Appellate or Revisional forums shall be withdrawn by the dealer;
(e) penalties and interest already remitted before 20th March, 2018 will not be readjusted towards tax liability.";
(9) in section 42, in sub-section (2), after the existing proviso, the following provisos shall be inserted, namely:-
"Provided further that those dealers who have filed audited statement of accounts and certificates under sub-section (1) will be allowed to revise the returns for the period up to June, 2017, in respect of defects of a technical or clerical in nature, having no effect on the sales turnover already conceded or the tax paid. Such dealers may apply for revision of their returns before the assessing authority on or before 30th June, 2018:
Provided also that this facility shall not be available to dealers against whom assessment proceedings have already been initiated based on such defects:
Provided also that such revision shall be allowed on the basis of the instructions issued by the Commissioner from time to time.";
(10) in section 55,-
(a) for the marginal heading, the following marginal heading shall be substituted, namely:-
"Appeals to the Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals).-"
(b) in sub-section (1),-
(i) after the first proviso, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:-
"Provided further that notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, any order passed under this Act by an assessing authority not below the rank of Deputy Commissioner shall be appealable only to the Joint Commissioner (Appeals).";
(ii) in the third proviso, for the words and brackets "Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)", the words and brackets "Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" shall be substituted;
(c) in sub-section (4), in the first proviso, for the words and brackets "Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)", the words and brackets "Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" shall be substituted;
(d) in sub-section (5), for the words and brackets "Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" the words and brackets "Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" shall be substituted;
(e) in sub-section (6), for the words and brackets "Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" the words and brackets "Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" shall be substituted;
(f) in sub-section (7), for the words and brackets "Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" the words and brackets "Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" shall be substituted;
(11) in section 58,-
(a) in sub-section (1), for the words and brackets "other than that of the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) or Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)", the words and brackets "other than that of the Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) or Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" shall be substituted;
(b) in sub-section (2), in clause (b), for the words and brackets "the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) or Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)", the words and brackets "the Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) or Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" shall be substituted;
(12) in section 59, in sub-section (1), for the words and brackets "the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) or Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)", the words and brackets "the Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) or Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" shall be substituted;
(13) in section 60,-
(a) in sub-section (1), for the words and brackets "Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) or Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)", the words and brackets "Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) or Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" shall be substituted;
(b) in sub-section (2), for the words and brackets "Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) or Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" wherever they occur, the words and brackets "Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) or Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" shall be substituted;
(14) in section 65, for the words and brackets "Deputy Commissioner (Appeals), Assistant Commissioner (Appeals) or the Deputy Commissioner", the words and brackets "Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals), Assistant Commissioner (Appeals) or the Deputy Commissioner" shall be substituted;
(15) in section 85, in sub-section (2), in clause (x), in sub-clause (b), the words "or by a Joint Commissioner (Appeals)" shall be added at the end;
(16) in section 94, in sub-section (5), for the words and brackets "including Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" the words and brackets "including Joint Commissioner (Appeals), Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and Assistant Commissioner (Appeals)" shall be substituted;
(17) in the FIRST SCHEDULE, below serial number 17B and the entries against it in columns (2) and (3), the following Note shall be inserted, namely:-
"Note:-This entry shall be deemed to have come into force on the 19th day of July, 2011.".
11. Amendment of Act 21 of 2008- In the Kerala Finance Act, 2008 (21 of 2008), in section 6,-
(1) (a) for the words and figures "section 5 and section 7", the words and figure "section 5, except on foreign liquor," shall be substituted;
.(b) the proviso shall be omitted;
(2) sub-section (2A) shall be omitted;*
(3) for sub-section (3), the following sub-section shall be substituted, namely:-
"(3) The Government may after due appropriation made by law in this behalf utilise such sum of money of Social Security Cess for the purposes specified in sub-section (1).";
(4) in sub-section (4), the word, brackets, figure and letter "and (2A)" shall be omitted.
12. Reduction of arrears in-certain cases.-
(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-Sectiort (1) of section 173 of the Kerala Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (20 of 2017) and the Kerala Tax on Luxuries Act, 1976 (32 of 1976) (hereinafter referred to as the repealed Act) and the rules made thereunder or in any judgment, decree or order of any court, tribunal or appellate authority, an assessee who is in arrears of tax or any other amount due under the repealed Act relating to the period up to and including 31st March, 2011, may opt for settling the arrears on payment of the principal amount of tax in arrears and thirty per cent of penalty amount, by availing a complete reduction of the interest on the tax amount and interest on the penalty amount.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Kerala Revenue Recovery Act, 1968 (15 of 1968) reduction of arrears under sub-section (1) shall be applicable to those cases in which revenue recovery proceedings have been initiated and the assessing authorities under the repealed Act shall have the power to collect such amounts on settlement under sub-section (1) and where the amount is settled under sub-section (1) the assessing authorities shall withdraw the revenue recovery proceedings against such assessees which will then be binding on the revenue authorities and such assessees shall not be liable for payment of any collection charges.
(3) The assessee shall withdraw all the cases pending before any appellate or revisional authority, tribunal or courts for opting for settling the arrears under this section.
(4) All arrears including tax and penalties pertaining to a year shall be settled together under this section.
(5) An assessee who intends to opt for payment of arrears under sub-section (1) shall submit an application to the assessing authority on or before 30th June, 2018.
(6) The arrears for the purpose of settlement under this section shall be calculated as on the date of submission of application.
(7) On receipt of an application under sub-section (5), the assessing authority shall determine the amount of tax and other amounts due from the assessee under sub-section (1) and shall intimate the same to the assessee, and thereupon the assessee shall remit the amount in equal monthly instalments on or before 30th June, 2018:
Provided that an assessee who opts to settle his arrears under sub-section (1) has remitted any amount relating to the arrears for obtaining a stay voluntarily or by way of an order or decree or judgment passed by any court or tribunal or appellate authority and if the case is pending before such authority, the amount so paid shall be treated as that paid under this option.
(8) There shall not be any refund subsequently for the amount settled under this scheme, under any circumstances.