Read:- 1. Trade Circular No. 1 of 2017-18 dated 14th September, 2017 issued by the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and published in the Official Gazette, Series I No. 25 dated 21st September, 2017.

2. Trade Circular No. 2 of 2017-18 dated 31st October, 2017 issued by the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and published in the Official Gazette, Series I No. 31 dated 2nd November, 2017.

3. Trade Circular No. 3 of 2017-18 dated 29th November, issued by the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and published in the Official Gazette, Series I No. 35 dated 30th November, 2017.

4. Trade Circular No. 4 of 2017-18 dated 4th January, 2018, issued by the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and published in the Official Gazette, Series I No. 41 dated 11th January, 2018.

Various representations are being received from the dealers on the trade circulars cited supra requesting extension of due date for making online application for obtaining declaration Form C. In this regard, it is clarified as under:-

1. The Goa Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 is enforced from the 1st day of July, 2017 and simultaneously, the amendment to the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (hereinafter called as "the CST Act") came into effect from the same date by virtue of which, "Goods" for the purposes of the CST Act means only the six goods i.e. (i) Alcoholic liquor for human consumption, (ii) Petroleum crude, (iii) High speed diesel, (iv) Motor sprit (commonly known as petrol), (v) Natural gas and (vi) Aviation turbine fuel.

2. As a result, as mentioned in the trade circulars cited supra, the dealers dealing in goods other than these six goods have ceased to be the dealers for the purpose of the amended CST Act with effect from 01/07/2017 and those making inter-State sale of any goods other than these six goods have ceased to be liable to pay tax under the CST Act with effect from 01/07/2017 and as such, they need not file any return under the CST Act. The registration granted earlier under sub-section (1) of section 7 of the CST Act to such dealers, whose liability has now ceased, has become infructuous.

3. Sub-rule (7) of rule 12 of the Central Sales Tax (Registration and Turnover) Rules, 1957, provides as under:-

"The declaration in Form C or Form F or certificate in Form E-I or E-II shall be furnished to the prescribed authority within three months after the end of the period to which the declaration or certificate relates:

Provided that if the prescribed authority is satisfied that the person concerned was prevented by sufficient cause from furnishing such declaration or certificate within the aforesaid time, that authority may allow such declaration or certificate to furnished within such extended time as that authority may permit."

4. Thus, the last date for furnishing the declaration Forms in case of such dealers was 30/09/2017. In case of inter-State sale / branch transfers, the seller / transferor of goods is required to furnish the forms as aforesaid after obtaining the same from the counterpart purchasers / receivers of goods which means that the time limit of three months also applies for the counterpart purchasers / receivers of goods to apply and obtain these Forms their jurisdictional authorities and furnish to their suppliers / transferor of goods.

5. Further, the dealers were required to furnish the details of declaration forms 'C', 'F', 'H' and 'I' in Form TRAN-1, while availing the transitional input tax credit upon their migration to GST. Form TRAN-1 was required to be filed by such dealers on or before the 27 December, 2017.

6. In view of the above facts, it was clarified vide circulars cited supra that the dealers who ceased to be dealers under the CST Act should apply online and obtain declaration Form 'C' for the inter-State transactions effected during the pre-GST regime on or before 27/12/2017.

7. Considering the requests made by dealers, it is now decided to give a one-time opportunity in respect of grant of declaration forms thereby allowing the dealers to apply online and obtain the declaration forms. The one-time opportunity should be exercised by the dealers on or before 31st day of March, 2018, in the following manner.

8. The dealer shall make an application on a plain paper to the Appropriate Assessing Authority, giving the category-wise details of the Declaration Forms required to be issued. A statement containing invoice-wise details of each transaction, inter alia, disclosing the date of invoice, invoice number, name of the dealer to whom the form is being issued, selling dealer's TIN, commodity description, invoice value, purpose, etc shall be annexed to the application. The statement should disclose a clear demarcation of party-wise and quarter/month-wise forms to be issued with the sub-total of the value for each form.

9. The application alongwith the statement thereto shall by submitted at the inward counter of the jurisdictional ward office and official acknowledgement shall be obtained by the dealer. Since the facility of applying for declaration forms is being offered as a 'one-time' measure, it should be ensured by the dealer that the application and the statement annexed thereto is correct and complete in all respects.

10. Upon receipt of the application, the jurisdictional Assessing Authority upon being satisfied about the correctness of the application, open the window on the portal thereby enabling the applicant dealer to apply online for the declaration forms.

11. The window may be kept open for a period not exceeding seven days during which the applicant dealer has to furnish online, the details for declaration forms required. The jurisdictional Assessing Authority, however, may keep the window open for a period beyond seven days in genuine cases.

12. The Assessing Authority, inter-alia, shall ensure that there are no material differences in the statement annexed to the physical application vis-a-vis the details furnished online. Upon being satisfied that there are no such differences and the dealer is not otherwise ineligible for grant of declaration forms; the jurisdictional Assessing Authority shall approve the declaration Forms.

13. The process of downloading, printing and signing of declaration forms shall be completed by the dealer at his end.

14. Invariably, the entire process of making application for declaration forms and issue thereof for any period prior to 01/07/2017 shall be completed on or before the 31st day of March, 2018.

This issues with the approval of the Government.

(Dipak M. Bandekar)

Commissioner of Commercial Taxes