The Commissioner of State Tax, Maharashtra on Friday issued the trade circular wherein guidelines for filing appeal against assessment orders passed manually, apart from the SAP system, were elaborated.
The Maharashtra Government issued the guidelines on the representations received that in some cases the Rectification Applications filed by the dealers are not being taken up by the Nodal Officers for hearing on priority, which causes hardship to the dealers.
The trade circular said it instructed all the officers to pass assessment orders on the SAP system and where it is not possible to pass an order on the SAP system, in such cases assessment orders can be passed manually outside the SAP system.
Consequently, such assessment orders are passed physically outside the SAP system and have been served either physically i.e. hardcopy or via e-mail to the dealers. In some such cases, the dealers may wish to file appeals against such physical orders (passed outside the SAP system) served to him, it is not possible for the dealer to file an online application of appeal in such cases. Hence it is necessary to upload such orders in the SAP system on priority. If the physically passed orders are not uploaded in the SAP system within a period of 60 days, the dealer will not be able to file an appeal and will have to face coercive recovery action.
“In cases wherein manual assessment orders are passed, the Nodal officers are hereby instructed not to take any coercive recovery action up to a period of 60 days from the service of such order,” the circular said.
The trade circular said, “from January 2020 the department has stopped accepting appeals in physical form. Now dealers have to file appeals online only.”
The notice further instructed the officers to keep track of such cases of manual orders
issued outside the SAP system and upload such assessment orders in the assessment module on the SAP system on priority. The manually issued orders are instructed to be uploaded into the SAP Assessment Module by June 15, 2020.
“In such cases, where the taxpayer wishes to file an appeal against the assessment orders, which are passed manually (outside the SAP system) and are not uploaded, he may file an application in form 314 (application for stay of recovery for which demand notice u/s 32(4) has been served) and mail the same to his concerned nodal officer,” the circular clarified.
There is also a possibility that in some cases, a period of 60 days to file an appeal may expire before the physical orders are uploaded on the system. In such cases, the delay in filing appeal beyond the period of 60 days will be condoned by the appellate authorities without levy of compounding fees. Once the physical orders are uploaded in the assessment module then the dealer can file an online application through the appeal module.
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