Rupesh Samant

Porvorim, Jul 31: In order to tap a revenue of Rs 300 crore which is stuck in litigations, Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday told the House that one time settlement (OTS) scheme would be introduced for those who owe tax payment to the state government before the introduction of Goods and Service Tax (GST).

Sawant told the ongoing assembly session that around Rs 300 crore which was due in terms of various taxes during pre-GST era would be recovered by introducing OTS for them.

The chief minister said that around 2,500 businesses, which were due to pay the taxes before introduction of GST, had refused to do so. Some of them had even filed cases challenging the payment of the taxes, he said.

Sawant said that the state government will introduce OTS giving them fifty percent rebate on the pending amount, while rest of the money they can pay within three months. “The OTS will be modelled on lines with the similar scheme launched by the central government,” he said.

The chief minister said that the state has earned compensation of Rs 502 crore for the financial year 2018-19. “We will get the compensation till the year 2022. The state has been benefitting since the introduction of GST,” he said.