Chandigarh, Dec 20 : Giving relief to trade and industry, the Punjab government on Monday announced to scrap 40,000 statutory form related outstanding cases under the central sales tax and the value added tax (VAT) out of 48,000 cases related to fiscal 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17. Chief Minister Charanjit Channi had announced the decision in Ludhiana earlier. An official spokesperson said the department has completed the assessment in the remaining 8,500 cases for 2014-15 and initiated the process to settle these cases by asking the traders to deposit just 30 per cent of the tax liability. In further relief, the traders will only have to deposit 20 per cent of the aforesaid tax liability during this fiscal and the balance by the end of next fiscal. The industry-friendly initiative would go a long way to instill confidence and boost morale to invest in the state, the spokesperson added. /IANS