Excise and Taxation Commissioner,

Haryana, Panchkula.

To

All the Joint. Excise & Taxation Commissioners (Range),

All the Deputy Excise & Taxation Commissioners (ST),

All the Assessing Authorities In the State

As you are aware the State Government vide Notification No. S.O.46/HA.6/2003/S.60/2013 dated 30.4.2013 (copy enclosed) has substituted the rule 42 of the Haryana VAT Rules, 2003 and the new substituted rule substantially raises the financial limits of the approving authorities. The new limit prescribed under Rule 42 of Haryana VAT Rule is as below:-

2. With the above revised financial limits in operation now there should not be any resentment on the part of the dealers as about 90% of the refund cases might qualify for approval at the district/range level only. The enhanced financial powers have also put burden on the DETCs and JETCs to be more vigilant while approving refunds. But at the same time as majority of the orders allowing refunds are passed by the ETO-cum-AAs so the DETC district in charge of the district and the JETC (Range) are required to be more cautious while approving refunds. Otherwise the liberalization process may go against the revenue. All the assessing authorities (including ETO and DETC) while passing orders allowing refund should take care of that all the required documents including statutory returns, declaration forms and certificates etc. are duly examined and Vat payments verified from the treasury before passing an order allowing refund. The practice of mentioning "refund to be issued after verification of payment" should immediately be stopped and if any such order comes to the notice of the Head Office then disciplinary action shall be taken against the concerned officer who has passed the order without examining and verifying the documents. If a refund has been recommended for approval by an officer say DETC to the JETC and onwards then it will be assumed that he has carefully examined the said order and supporting documents/file and shall be fully responsible for the lapses detected, if any, later on which resulted in revenue loss to the State.

3. This office had prescribed certain time periods for examining refund cases by various level officers vide Para 2 contained in this office memo No. 320/ST-1V dated 27.2.2006 (copy enclosed for ready reference). This time limit is now re-fixed as under:-

It should be ensured that in future the above time limit is adhered to by all concerned authorities.

4. A committee comprising of three senior most AETCs from department side posted at Head Quarter and JETC(T) as the Member-Secretary has been constituted under new substituted rule 42 to approve refund above 25 lakh rupees. The mechanism to approve refund above rupees 25 lakh will be as follows:

a) The JETC (Range) will forward the refund case file to the Head Office alongwith his comments and recommendations clearly stating that he recommends for approving the refund.

b) In a case where JETC (R) does not recommend the refund, then instead of sending the file to the Head Office, the same will be referred back to the concerned DETC for looking into the observations or deficiencies pointed out by the JETC (R) and it will be the responsibility of the DETC to see that the same is dealt with and attended to immediately keeping in view the time limit prescribed under the Act/Rules in issuing refunds to the dealers without interest lapses. The DETC would ensure that the concerned assessing authority initiates and finalizes action promptly. Or if the assessing authority or the DETC do not agree or endorse the views pointed out by the JETC (Range) the case/file will be sent to the JETC (Range) with detailed reasoning for not agreeing with the observations and the JETC (Range) will initiate proceedings as per law immediately instead of referring the matter to the Head Office as all the remedial powers are available to the JETC (Range) under the Act/Rules.

c) Once the file is received in the Head Office the Superintendent in charge of the sales tax branch would ensure that the file is put up before the JETC (T) immediately within two working days of the receipt of the same.

d) The JETC (T) will examine the refund order and all supporting documents and prepare a detailed report whether he agrees with the order passed by the assessing authority and recommended by the DETC and the JETC (Range) and put up his report prepared as Member-Secretary of the Committee on the next Monday (if it is a holiday then the next working day) before the Chairman of the Committee with a copy to other member AETCs. The Committee will meet on every Monday and will take decision on the orders/cases put up before it.

e) If the Committee approves a refund the same will be recorded on the file then and there in the meeting and the JETC (T) will ensure that the approval is communicated to the concerned DETC {with a copy endorsed to the concerned JETC (Range)} on the next working day positively.

f) In a case where the Committee does not approve refund the reasons thereof will be recorded on the file and the JETC (T) will ensure that the file is sent back to the JETC(Range) or the DETC (with a copy to the JETC) for reexamining the order in the light of the observations made by the Committee on the next working day positively.

5. In the course of approving of refunds if any deficiency or illegality is noticed then refund may be reduced by the senior approving authority after passing order as per law or by the assessing authority in the light of the deficiency pointed out by the senior approving authorities. All such cases with complete details will be forwarded to the Head Office for examining whether the lapse was intentional or not so that necessary disciplinary action can be taken against the erring officer.

6. To have better supervision and check over the subordinate offices, it is further directed that every month:

i. All the DETCs would carry out minimum 5% sample checking of refund cases allowed by his subordinate officers namely ETO and AETO in his district;

ii. All the JETC (Range) would carry out minimum 5% random checking of all the refund cases allowed by the DETCs in the concerned range;

iii. Additional ETCs posted in the Head Office would carry out random checking of at least 5% of the cases approved by the JETC Range) in the State. To carry out the above one Additional ETC will be assigned one particular range for which orders will be issued separately.

iv. All the DETCs and the JETCs (Range) would send their report, dealer-wise, giving complete details of the orders checked by them and the deficiencies noticed if any by 7th of the next month to the Head Office. The DETCs would also endorse a copy of this report to the concerned JETC (Range) as well. These consolidated reports would be put up before the ETC by the JETC (T) through the Additional ETC who is the Chairman of the Committee by 10th of each month,

v. The Additional ETCs would put up their report to the ETC directly.

It is further directed that these instructions should be circulated to all concerned working under your control for strict compliance and report.

Additional Excise & Taxation Commissioner (P/R)

For Excise & Taxation Commissioner, Haryana,

Panchkula