108. Stock brought forward during transition.

(1) A registered dealer under this Act shall be entitled to input tax credit in respect of any sales tax paid under the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993 (Assam Act XII of 1993) on taxable goods held as opening stock as on the date of commencement of this Act, if such goods were purchased not more than twelve months prior to the date of commencement of this Act:

Provided that no tax credit under this section shall be allowed unless,—

(i) the dealer has in his possession, sale vouchers issued by a dealer registered under the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993 (Assam Act XII of 1993), against the purchases of the said goods;

(ii) the goods are intended to be used for the purposes specified in sub-section (3) of section 14; and

(iii) goods are included in the statement of taxable goods prescribed under sub-section (2).

Provided that no tax credit under this section can be claimed in respect of the finished goods held as opening stock on the date of commencement of this Act, if such goods were manufactured out of tax paid raw material or capital goods.

(2) Within a period of thirty days of the appointed day, all registered dealers who claim input tax credit under the provisions of this section shall furnish in such form and to such authority as may be prescribed, a statement of such claim along with an inventory of such taxable goods under this Act held in stock on the appointed day. A registered dealer who has submitted the statement of taxable goods under this sub-section shall not be permitted to make any changes in the details of such statement if such changes result in increase in the tax credit claimed in the statement of taxable goods.

(3) Such input tax credit shall be available as the outstanding credit brought forward for being availed of in six equal instalments commencing after three months from the appointed day, in the manner as may be prescribed.

(4) No tax credit can be availed of for opening stock of goods that were taxable at last point under the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993(Assam Act XII of 1993) held at the time of commencement of this Act.

(5)(a) Where documentary evidence of sales tax charged or paid is available, the value on which the sales tax was calculated shall be used as the basis for claiming the credit. The tax rate applied to that value shall be the tax rate under this Act or under the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993, since repealed, whichever is lower.

(b) in the absence of the evidence specified at clause (a) the amount that can be claimed as credit shall be based on ninety percent of the purchase value. The tax component which can be claimed as a credit shall be calculated by the use of the tax fraction applied to this value. The tax rate applied to the reduced purchase value shall be the tax rate under this Act or under the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993(Assam Act XII of 1993), whichever is lower.

(6) The provisions of section 14 shall apply mutatis-mutandis in respect of the input credit to be availed of under this section.

(7) If the Commissioner is satisfied that a dealer,—

(a) has claimed input tax credit for such stock for which he is not entitled for claiming tax credit as per the provisions of section 14 or proviso to sub-section (1) of this section; or

(b) has claimed tax credit in excess of what is admissible under sub-section (1) of this section,

he may, after giving the dealer a reasonable opportunity of being heard direct him to pay a penalty equal to twice the amount of tax credit so claimed.