Company : Sol Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Website : www.courtkutchehry.com ASSAM TAX ON LUXURIES (HOTELS AND LODGING HOUSES) ACT, 1989 5 of 1989 [12tn April, 1989] CONTENTS 1. Short title, extent and commencement 2. Definitions 3. Liability to tax 4. Liability of hotelier to pay tax 5. Exercise of powers and authorities 6. Registration 7. Non-transferability of registration certificate 8. Information to be furnished regarding changes in business, etc 9. Certificate of registration to continue in certain circumstances 10. Returns 11. Prohibition against collection of tax in certain cases 12. Bill or cash memorandum to be issued to customer 13. Accounts 14. Hotelier to declare the name of owner of business 15. Imposition of penalty for contravening certain provisions 16. Payment of tax 17. Rounding off of the tax, etc 18. Offences and penalties 19. Power to make rules 20. Power to remove difficulties ASSAM TAX ON LUXURIES (HOTELS AND LODGING HOUSES) ACT, 1989 5 of 1989 [12tn April, 1989] An Act to provide for the imposition of a tax on luxuries in hotels and lodging houses Preamble. Whereas it is necessary to make an addition to the revenues of Assam and for that purpose it is expedient to impose a tax on the luxuries in hotels and lodging houses and to provide for matters connected therewith ; It is hereby enacted in the Fortieth Year of the Republic of India as follows : 1. Short title, extent and commencement :- (1) This Act may be called the Assam Tax on Luxuries (Hotels and Lodging Houses) Act, 1989. (2) It extends to the whole of the State of Assam. (3) It shall be deemed to have come into force with effect from the first day of April, 1989. 2. Definitions :- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, (1) "Assessing Officer" in relation to any hotelier means the authority competent to assess the hotelier in accordance with S. 5 of this Act; (2) "business" includes the activity of providing residential accommodation and any other service in connection with, or incidental or ancillary to, such activity of providing residential accommodation, by a hotelier for monetary consideration; (3) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Taxes, Assam ; (4) "concessional rate" in relation to a luxury provided in a hotel, means a rate lower than the normal rate fixed by any Government, authority Or under any law for the time being in force ; (5) "hotel" includes a residential accommodation, a lodging house, an inn, a public house or a building or part of a building, where residential accommodation is provided by way of business; (6) "hotelier" means, in relation to a hotel, the person who owns the hotel and includes a person who for the time being is in charge of the management of the hotel; (7) "luxury provided in a hotel" means accommodation and other services provided in a hotel, the rate of charges for which including the charges for air-conditioning, telephone, television, radio, music, entertainment, extra beds and the like, is one hundred rupees per person per day or more ; but does not include the supply of food and drinks where such supply is separately charged for; (8) "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, a State Government and the Central Government; (9) "place of business" includes an office, or any other place which a hotelier uses for the purpose of his business or where he keeps his books of accounts; (10) "prescribe" means prescribed by rules made under this Act; (11) "receipt" means the amount of monetary consideration received or receivable by a hotelier or by his agent for any luxury provided in a hotel; (12) "registered hotelier" means a hotelier registered under S. 6 of this Act; (13) "rules" means rules made under this Act; (14) "State" means the State of Assam ; (15) "tax" means the tax levied on luxuries provided in a hotel payable under this Act; (16) "turnover of receipts" means the aggregate of the amounts of monetary consideration received or receivable by a hotelier or by his agent in respect of the luxuries provided in a hotel during a given period. 3. Liability to tax :- (1) Subject to the provisions of this Act and rules made thereunder there shall be levied a tax on the turnover of receipts of a hotelier; (3) Where, in addition to the charges for luxury provided in a hotel, service charges are levied and appropriated by the hotelier and not paid to the staff then such charges shall be deemed to be part of the charges for luxury provided in the hotel. (4) Where luxury provided in a hotel to any person (not being an employee of the hotel) is not charged at all, or is charged at a concessional rate, nevertheless mere shall be levied and collected the tax on such luxury at the rates specified in sub-S. (2) as if full charges for such luxury were paid to the hotelier. (6) The tax shall not be levied and payable in respect of the turnover of receipts for supply of food and drinks, on the sale of which the hotelier is liable to pay sales tax under the Assam Sales Tax Act, 1947 (Assam Act XVII of 1947). (7) For the purposes of this Act, tax collected separately by the hotelier shall not be considered to be part of the receipts or the turnover of receipts of the hotelier. 4. Liability of hotelier to pay tax :- Subject to the provisions of this Act and the rules made thereunder, there shall be paid by every hotelier who is liable to pay tax under this Act, the tax or taxes leviable in accordance with the provisions of this Act. (2) If a person other than the owner (including part owner) is for the time being in charge of the hotel, jointly and severally be liable to pay the tax. 5. Exercise of powers and authorities :- The authorities competent to assess, recover and enforce payment of tax under the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993, (hereinafter referred to as the sates tax law) shall, within their local jurisdiction under the sales tax law, be competent to assess, recover and enforce payment of tax due from any hotelier whose place of business is located within such jurisdiction as if tax were a tax under the sales tax law and the hotelier, a dealer, within the meaning of the sales tax law, carrying on business within such jurisdiction and, subject to the provisions of this Act and the rules, notifications and Orders made thereunder, the said authorities, for this purpose, may exercise all or any of the powers they have under the sales tax law; and the provisions of the sales tax law, including provisions relating to inspections, assessment, registration of the transferee of a business, imposition of 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 dissolution of such firm or partition of such family appeals, revisions, references, refunds, rebates, payment of interest, compounding of offences and treatment of documents furnished by a dealer as confidential, shall mutatis mutandis apply accordingly. 6. Registration :- (2) Every hotelier requird to possess a certificate of registration shall apply in the prescribed form to the assessing officer within thirty days from the date on which the hotelier first becomes liable to pay the tax. (3) If the assessing officer, after such enquiry as he deems fit, is satisfied that an application for registration is in order, he shall register the applicant and issue to him a certificate of registration in the prescribed form. (4) The assessing officer may, after considering any information furnished or otherwise called for or received under any provisions of this Act, amend from time to time the certificate of registration. (5) Where a registered hotelier discontinues, transfers or otherwise disposes of his activity of providing accommodation by way of business or where he ceases to be liable to pay the tax and he applies in the prescribed form to the assessing officer, the latter shall, after such imquiry as may be necessary, cancel the certificate of registration with effect from such date as he may fix in accordance with the rules. 7. Non-transferability of registration certificate :- Save as otherwise provided in S. 9, certificate of registration shall be personal to the hotelier to whom it is granted and shall not be transferable. 8. Information to be furnished regarding changes in business, etc :- (2) Where any such hotelier dies, his executor; administrator or other legal representative or where any such hotelier is a firm and there is a change in the constitution of the firm or the firm is dissolved, every person who was a partner thereof, shall, in like manner, inform the said authority of such death, change in the constitution, or as the case may be, dissolution. 9. Certificate of registration to continue in certain circumstances :- Where a registered hotelier (a) effects changes in name of his business, or (b) is a firm and there is a change in the constitution of the firm without dissolution thereof, or (c) is a trustee of a trust, and there is change in the trustees thereof, or (d) is a guardian of a ward, and there is a change in the guardian, then merely by reason of any of the circumstances aforesaid, it shall not be necessary for the hotelier, or the firm with the changed constitution, or the new trustees or new guardian, to apply for a fresh certificate of registration and on information being furnished in the manner required by S. 8, the certificate of registration shall be amended. 10. Returns :- (1)Every registered hotelier shall furnish returns for such period, by such dates, and to such authority, as may be prescribed. (2) If any hotelier, having furnished return under sub-S. (1), discovers any omission or incorrect statement therein he may furnish a revised return before the expiry of three months next following the last date prescribed for furnishing the original return. 11. Prohibition against collection of tax in certain cases :- (1) No person shall collect any sum by way of tax in respect of his business to the extent that he is not liable to pay it under the Act. 12. Bill or cash memorandum to be issued to customer :- A registered hotelier shall issue to the customer or customers a bill or cash memorandum serially numbered, signed and dated by him or his servant, manager or agent and showing therein such other particulars as may be prescribed. He shall keep a counterfoil or duplicate of such bill or cash memorandum duly signed and dated and preserve it for a period of not less than eight years from the date of the transaction. 13. Accounts :- (1) Every hotelier liable to pay tax under this Act, and every hotelier who is required so to do by the assessing officer by notice served on him in the prescribed manner shall keep a true account of the luxury provided by him in the hotel. (2) If the assessing officer considers that the accounts kept are not sufficiently clear or intelligible to enable him or determine whether or not a hotelier is liable to tax during any period, or are so kept as not to enable a proper scrutiny of the returns or the statement furnished, the assessing officer may require such hotelier by notice in writing to keep such accounts in such form or manner as in his opinion is necessary for the purpose of proper assessment and as he may, subject to anything that may be prescribed in that behalf in writing, direct. (3) The Commissioner may, subject to such conditions or restrictions as may be prescribed in this behalf, by notice in writing direct any hotelier, or by notification in the official Gazette, direct any class of hoteliers to maintain accounts and records showing such particulars regarding their business in such form, and in such manner, as may be specified by him. (4) Every registered hotelier shall ordinarily keep all his accounts, registers and documents relating to his business at the places of business specified in his certificate of registration or, with the previous approval of the assessing officer, at such other place as may be approved by the assessing officer. 14. Hotelier to declare the name of owner of business :- Every hotelier, who is liable to pay tax, and who is a Hindu undivided family, or an association or club or society or firm or company, or who carries on business as the guardian or trustee or otherwise on behalf of another person shall, within the period prescribed, send to the authority prescribed, a declaration in the manner prescribed stating the name of the person or persons who is the owner or who are the owners of the hotel. Such declaration may be revised from time to time. 15. Imposition of penalty for contravening certain provisions :- (2) If the assessing officer, in the course of any proceeding under this Act or otherwise, has reason to believe that any person has become liable to a penalty or forfeiture or both penalty and forfeiture of any sum under sub-S. (1), he shall serve on such person a notice in the prescribed manner requiring him on a date and at a place specified in the notice to attend and show cause why a penalty or forfeiture or both penalty and forfeiture of any sum as provided in sub-S. (1) should not be imposed on him. (3) The assessing officer shall thereupon hold an enquiry and shall make such order as he thinks fit. (4) No prosecution for an offence under this Act shall be instituted in respect of the same facts on which a penalty has been imposed under this section. (5) When any order of forfeiture is made, the assessing officer shall publish or cause to be published a notice thereof for the information of the persons concerned giving such details and in such manner as may be prescribed. 16. Payment of tax :- (1) Tax shall be paid in the manner herein provided, and at such intervals as may be prescribed. (2) A registered hotelier furnishing return as required by sub-S. (1) of S. 10, shall first pay into a Government treasurry, in the prescribed manner, whole of the amount of tax due from him according to such return. (3) A registered hotelier furnishing a revised return in accordance with sub-S. (2) of S. 10, which revised return show that a larger amount of tax than already paid is payable, shall first pay into a Government treasury the extra amount of tax. (5) Any tax, penalty or interest or sum forfeited, which remains unpaid after the date specified in the notice for payment and any instalment not duly paid, shall be recoverable as an arrear of land revenue. 17. Rounding off of the tax, etc :- The amount of tax, penalty, interest, composition money, fine or any other sum payable under the provisions of this Act, shall be rounded off to the nearest rupee and for this purpose, where such amount contains a part of a rupee consisting of paise, then, if such part is fifty paise or more, it shall be increased to one rupee, and if such part is less than fifty paise, it shall be ignored : Provided that, nothing in this section shall apply for the purpose of collection by the hotelier of any amount by way of tax under this Act. 18. Offences and penalties :- (2) Whoever, knowingly keeps false account of the receipts in contravention of S. 13, shall on conviction be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three months but which may extend to one year and with fine. (4) Whoever aids or abets any person in commission of any act specified in sub-Ss. (1) to (3), shall, on conviction, be punished with rigorous imprisonment which shall not be less man three months but which may extend to one year and with fine. (6) Whoever commits any of the acts specified in sub-Ss. (1) to (5) and the offence is a continuing one under any of the provisions of these sub-sections shall, on conviction, be punished with a daily fine of not less than rupees one hundred during the period of the continuance of the offence, in addition to the punishment provided under this section. (7) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-Ss. (1) to (6), no person shall be proceeded against under these sub-sections for the acts referred to therein, if the total amount of tax evaded or attempted to be evaded is less than rupees two hundred during the period of a half-year. (8) No prosecution for an offence under this Act shall be instituted in respect of the same fact on which a penalty has been imposed by the assessing officer under any provisions of this Act. 19. Power to make rules :- (1) The State Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, make rules to carry out the purposes of this Act. (3) The power to make rules, except on the first occasion of the exercise thereof, shall be subject to the condition of the rules being made after previous publication. 20. Power to remove difficulties :- If any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this Act, the State Government may, by general or special order, do anything not inconsistent with such provision which appears to it to be necessary or expedient for the purpose of removing the difficulty.