WB VAT: Submission of paper copy of VAT returns by Dealer after Online Return

In terms of rule 34A or rule 34AA or rule 34AB of the West Ben­gal Val­ue Added Tax Rules, 2005, peri­od­ic returns are to be sub­mit­ted online by the deal­ers. If the return is fur­nished by a deal­er using his dig­i­tal sig­na­ture cer­tifi­cate then no paper copy of the online return is required to be sub­mit­ted. If the return is fur­nished with­out using dig­i­tal sig­na­ture cer­tifi­cate, then a paper copy of the online sub­mit­ted return, or a print­out of the acknowl­edge­ment in Form 14e or Form 15e as required under the applic­a­ble rule, should be fur­nished to the appro­pri­ate assess­ing author­i­ty. Such paper copy of return, or the print­out of the rel­e­vant online acknowl­edge­ment, as applic­a­ble, may be sub­mit­ted either man­u­al­ly or through post or couri­er to the respec­tive assess­ing author­i­ty of the dealer.

To fur­ther facil­i­tate fur­nish­ing of such paper copy of returns, or the rel­e­vant online acknowl­edge­ment, as the case may be, the fol­low­ing alter­na­tive arrange­ment is specified:–

1. After sub­mit­ting online return in accor­dance with the applic­a­ble rule, a duly signed com­plete paper copy of such return, or of the print­out of the rel­e­vant online acknowl­edge­ment, as required under the applic­a­ble rule, may be fur­nished by a deal­er to a Facil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre autho­rised by the Com­mer­cial Tax Direc­torate (list avail­able on website);

2. The Facil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre shall issue a receipt in respect of a paper copy of a duly signed online return, or of the rel­e­vant online acknowl­edge­ment, as the case may be, fur­nished by the deal­er to the Facil­i­ta­tion Centre;

3. The Facil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre shall deliv­er the paper copy of the online returns or the rel­e­vant online acknowl­edge­ments, as the case may be, received by it with­in the first 15 days of a month to the offices of the respec­tive appro­pri­ate assess­ing author­i­ties of the deal­ers con­cerned with­in 20th day of the rel­e­vant month along with office-wise state­ments incor­po­rat­ing the rel­e­vant deal­ers’ RC num­bers, trade names, return peri­ods, return forms fur­nished by deal­ers (e.g. Form 14e with Form 14 / Form 14D, only Form 14e, Form 15e with Form 15 / Form 15R, only Form 15e, Form 1 under the CST Act, 1956), acknowl­edge­ment num­bers and dates of receipt of such returns/acknowledgements by him;

4. Sim­i­lar­ly the paper copy of returns, or the online acknowl­edge­ment, as the case may be, received by it in the sec­ond half of a month shall be hand­ed over with­in five days of the next fol­low­ing month;

5. The paper copy of online sub­mit­ted return or the rel­e­vant online acknowl­edge­ment, as applic­a­ble, may be fur­nished to a Facil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre by a deal­er even after the rel­e­vant pre­scribed time lim­it for fur­nish­ing such copy of the return, and the date of fur­nish­ing to the Facil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre of such duly signed and com­plete paper copy of online sub­mit­ted return, or the rel­e­vant online acknowl­edge­ment, as the case may be, shall be con­sid­ered as the date on which the deal­er has com­plied with the legal require­ment of fur­nish­ing the rel­e­vant return to the appro­pri­ate assess­ing authority.

It is reit­er­at­ed that the above arrange­ment is an option­al one for the deal­ers and is in addi­tion to the exist­ing pro­ce­dures for fur­nish­ing of paper copy of online sub­mit­ted returns in the office of the appro­pri­ate assess­ing author­i­ty either man­u­al­ly or by post or courier.

All con­cerned are request­ed to make imme­di­ate and appro­pri­ate arrange­ments accord­ing­ly for imple­men­ta­tion of the above-men­tioned arrange­ment wher­ev­er required.