Short title, extent, commencement and eligibility criteria.

(1) This Act may be called the Bihar Settlement of Taxation Disputes Act, 2016. (2) It shall extend to the whole State of Bihar. (3) It shall come into force at once and shall remain in force for a period of three months from the date of issuance of notification: Provided that the State Government may, by notification published in the Official Gazette for this purpose, extend the said period of three months, for a period not exceeding three months, as specified in the notification. (4) It shall apply to all such disputes which have arisen out of proceedings under the law up to the financial year 2011-12 and for which an application for settlement of the dispute has been made by the party fifteen days before the expiry of the Act and the payment of the settlement amount has been made during the period the Act remained in force. (d) (iv) Commercial Taxes Tribunal, (v) the High Court, (vi) the Supreme Court of India, and includes, (1) a levy of tax, interest or penalty by an authority appointed or prescribed or authorized under the law or, (2) a proceeding for recovery of tax, interest or penalty initiated by or pending before any authority appointed or prescribed or authorised under the law or the Bihar and Orissa Public Demand Recovery Act, 1914; (e) In respect of a dispute “disputed amount” means, any tax, interest or penalty which is not admitted as being payable by the party; (f) “form” means a form appended to this Act ; (g) “law” means Part I of the Bihar Finance Act, 1981 (Bihar Act 5 of 1981) [as its stood before its repeal by section 94 of the Bihar Value Added Tax Act, 2005 (Act 27 of 2005)], the Bihar Value Added Tax Act, 2005 (Act 27 of 2005), the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (Act 74 of 1956), the Bihar Taxation on Luxuries in Hotels Act, 1988 (Bihar Act 5 of 1988) the Bihar Entertainment Tax Act, 1948 (Bihar Act XXXV of 1948), the Bihar Electricity Duty Act, 1948 (Bihar Act 36 of 1948) and Bihar Tax on Advertisement Act,2007. (h) “party” means a person who files an application under this Act for settlement of any dispute; (i) “Act” means the Bihar Settlement of Taxation Disputes Act, 2016; (j) “prescribed authority”, for the purposes of this Act, means: (i) In respect of any appeal pending, the Joint Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Appeal) or the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Appeal), before whom appeal is pending; (ii) Dispute pending before the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes or the Tribunal or the High Court or the Supreme court in which the disputed amount is more than rupees One Crore, the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes. (iii) Dispute pending before the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes or the Tribunal or the High Court or the Supreme Court in which the disputed amount is upto rupees One Crore, the concerned Joint Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Administration), under whome jurisdiction the party is registered or the order of disputed amount has been passed. (iv) In respect of any other disputed cases pending before the Joint Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Administration), the Joint Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Administration) (k) “revision” means a petition for revision under the law pending before the the Commissioner of Commercial Tax appointed under section-9 of Part I of the Bihar Finance Act, 1981 or section-10 of the Bihar Value Added Tax Act, 2005 or Tribunal under the Act ; (l) “settlement amount” means the amount upon payment of which the dispute shall be settled; (m) “Tribunal” means the Commercial Taxes Tribunal constituted under section-8 of Part I of the Bihar Finance Act, 1981 or section-9 of the Bihar Value Added Tax Act, 2005; (n) “turnover returned” means the gross turnover recorded in the returns filed by the party under the law; (o) other expressions not defined herein shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them under the law.