West Bengal Tax On Entry Of Goods Into Local Areas Act, 2012
No: 1 Dated: Mar, 31 2012
THE WEST BENGAL TAX ON ENTRY OF GOODS INTO LOCAL AREAS ACT, 2012
West Bengal Act I of 2012
An Act to provide for the levy and collection of taxes on the entry of certain goods into a local area of the State of West Bengal for consumption, use or sale therein and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto for the purpose by creating a Compensatory Entry Tax Fund.
Whereas it is expedient to provide for the levy and collection of taxes on the entry of certain goods into a local area of the State of West Bengal for consumption, use or sale therein and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto for the purpose by creating a Compensatory Entry Tax Fund;
It is hereby enacted as follows:-
CHAPTER I
Preliminary
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the West Bengal Tax on Entry of Goods into Local Areas Act, 2012.
(2) It extends to the whole of West Bengal.
(3) This section shall come into force at once, and the remaining provisions of this Act shall come into force on such date or dates as the State Government may, by notification, appoint, and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act.
2. Definitions. - (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, -
(a) "Additional Commissioner" means an Additional Commissioner as defined in clause (1) of section 2 of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003;
(b) "Appellate and Revisional Board" means the Appellate and Revisional Board as defined in clause (2) of section 2 of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003;
(c) "appointed day", in relation to any provision of this Act, means the date on which such provision comes into force;
(d) "appropriate Government Treasury" shall have the same meaning as defined in clause (3A) of section 2 of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003, and shall include such other branches or extension counters of banks as may be specified by notification;
(e) "Bureau" means the Bureau as defined in clause (4) of section 2 of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003;
(f) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner as defined in clause (8) of section 2 of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003;
(g) "dealer" means a dealer under the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003, or under the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994, as the case may be, and includes -
(i) a handling or delivery agent or an agent acting in any manner on behalf of the principal, or any other person who takes delivery or is entitled to take delivery of goods on behalf of a dealer on its entry into a local area,
(ii) where specified goods entering any local area have been dispatched to such local area by rail, road, water, air or post, and the consignee of such specified goods does not take delivery of such goods upon entry and such specified goods are sold under the provisions of any other law, the purchaser or any other person who takes delivery of such goods on his behalf;
(h) "entry of goods", with all its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means bringing of goods into a local area from any place outside that local area or any place outside the State or from outside India, for consumption, use or sale therein, whether by a dealer or an importer other than a dealer himself or by any other person;
(i) "Fund" means the West Bengal Compensatory Entry Tax Fund established under sub-section (1) of section 15;
(j) "goods" includes all kinds of movable property other than actionable claims, stocks, shares or securities;
(k) "importer" includes a person who in any capacity brings, or causes entry of, any specified goods into a local area for consumption or use therein and a dealer;
(l) "import value", in respect of a consignment of specified goods upon entry of such goods in a local area by or on behalf of a dealer or an importer other than a dealer, means -
(a) the price or cost at which the dealer or importer other than a dealer has purchased or procured or acquired or obtained the specified goods, as shown in the original tax invoice, invoice or bill or stock transfer advice or document of like nature; or
(b) where the tax invoice, invoice or bill or stock transfer advice or document of like nature is not available or is not produced, or where the price or cost of such specified goods is not separately mentioned therein, or where the tax invoice, invoice or bill or stock transfer advice or document of like nature produced is proved to be false or the information furnished therein is found to be incorrect, the prevailing market price of such specified goods in the local area;
(m) "local area" means the areas within the limits of a Municipal Corporation or any municipality or Gram Panchayat or Notified Area Council or any other local authority by whatever name called, constituted or continued in the State of West Bengal by any law for the time being in force;
(n) "notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette;
(o) "person" includes any company or association or body of individuals whether incorporated or not and also a Hindu undivided family, a firm, a local authority, Government of India, the Government of any State or Union Territory, a statutory body, a trust or other body corporate, a society including a co-operative society, a factor, a broker, a commission agent, a del credere agent, an auctioneer, an agent for handling or transporting of goods or handling of document of title to goods, or any other mercantile agent, by whatever name called, an educational institution, any bank, any hospital or nursing home or diagnostic centre, a joint-venture company, and a limited liability partnership or other juristic person;
(p) "prescribed" means prescribed by the rules made under this Act;
(q) "receive", in the context of receiving of goods, means to take delivery or possession of any goods, whether actual or constructive, or cause the goods to be received by any other person;
(r) "return period" means a period, as may be prescribed, for which a return is required to be furnished under section 9;
(s) "registered dealer" means a dealer registered under section 7 and the expression "unregistered dealer" shall be construed accordingly;
(t) "Schedule" means the Schedule appended to this Act;
(u) "Special Commissioner" means a Special Commissioner as defined in clause (43) of section 2 of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003;
(v) "specified goods" means goods specified in column (2) of the Schedule and in respect of which the State Government has specified the rate of tax under sub-section (2) of section 4;
(w) "State" means the State of West Bengal;
(x) "State Government" means the Government of West Bengal;
(y) "turnover of imports", used in relation to any registered dealer with reference to a period of time, means the aggregate of the import value of specified goods which the dealer brings or receives in any local area during the period for consumption, use or sale therein, and, used in relation to an unregistered dealer or importer other than a dealer, means the import value of a consignment of specified goods brought or received in any local area for consumption, use or sale therein, whether by the dealer or the importer other than a dealer himself or by any other person;
(z) "year" means the year commencing on the first day of April and ending on the last day of March.
(2) Words and expressions used and not defined in this Act but defined in the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994, or the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003, shall have the same meanings as respectively assigned to them in that Acts to the extent they are not inconsistent with this Act and the rules made thereunder.
CHAPTER II
Applicability of provisions of West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003 or West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994.
3. Applicability of provisions of West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003, or West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994. - (1) Subject to the other provisions of this Act and the rules made thereunder, the provisions of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003, and the rules made thereunder including provisions relating to returns, scrutiny, audit, special audit, provisional assessment, assessment, registration of a dealer or the transferee of any business, imposition of the tax liability of a person carrying on business on the transferee of, or successor to, such business, transfer of liability of any firm or Hindu undivided family to pay tax in the event of the dissolution of such firm or partition of such family, recovery of tax including that from third parties, appeals, reviews, revisions, references, refunds, penalties, charging and payment of interest, late fee, interception and detention of goods vehicles or of goods transported otherwise, maintenance of accounts and records, furnishing of information, production of and inspection of books of accounts and documents or records, search of goods vehicles or of place of business including factory or warehouse, seizure of goods or of books of accounts and documents or records, compounding of offences and treatment of documents furnished by a dealer as confidential, so far not inconsistent with any provision of this Act and the rules made thereunder, shall, mutatis mutandis, apply, whether or not the goods specified in the Schedule are covered within the definition of "goods" under that Act.
(2) For the purposes of this Act, and specifically for the matters referred to in sub-section (1), the authorities or other persons under the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 or the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003, shall have the same powers similar to the powers they are authorised to exercise under the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994, or the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003, as the case may be, and the rules made thereunder, so far not inconsistent with any provision of this Act and the rules made thereunder.