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The Uttar Pradesh government has extended the one time settlement scheme (OTS) for traders liable to pay value-added tax (VAT) till June 2 this year. The OTS or interest waiver scheme was first implemented from February 27 to December 31, 2020.
Finance Minister Suresh Khanna said here on Tuesday that the OTS had fetched revenue of Rs 113.13 crore for the state exchequer. He said following the good response from the traders, the OTS scheme had been extended till June 2 next. He said the OTS was likely to fetch total revenue of Rs 250 crore by the end of June.
Khanna said as many as 14,067 traders availed of the benefit of the OTS. He said the traders paid outstanding tax of Rs 78 crore and interest of Rs 35.14 crore or total Rs 113.13 crore while the interest of Rs 60.45 crore was waived.
Khanna said the best response for the scheme was from the traders with outstanding tax of Rs 10 lakh and their share among the total beneficiaries was 62 per cent and they paid revenue of Rs 64.20 crore.  
He said the response from the traders towards the OTS showed that small traders were keen for the settlement of outstanding taxes. He said the traders were keen to settle the dues before the GST was implemented from July, 2017 and desired to enroll with the new GST regime.
The minister said all the taxpayers under UP Trade Tax Act, 1948, Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, UP Value-Added Tax Act, 2007, UP Entry Tax Act, 2007, UP Entertainment and Betting Tax, 1979 and UP Cable Television Network (Rules), 1997v were covered under OTS.  
He said the cases pending in various courts, including National Company Law Tribunal, were also covered by this scheme.
Khanna said there was no human interface for availing the benefit of the OTS. He said traders willing to avail of the benefit of the scheme would have to apply online on the portal of the Trade Tax Department and they would not be required to visit the office of the Commercial Tax Department.
The minister said at each location in the state, the Commercial Tax Department had set up help desks for the traders not having the facility of their own computer and net connection.
Khanna said the Central government had released the amount to compensate the state for the shortfall in revenue collection from GST due to the pandemic. He said the UP government had received Rs 14,000 crore as compensation and Rs 4,800 crore as loan from the Centre.
The Centre had set up a special borrowing window in October, 2020 to meet the estimated shortfall of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in revenue arising on account of the implementation of the GST. The borrowings are being done through this window by the Centre on behalf of the states and Union Territories.