Government is Keen on GST Implementation from April 1, 2017: CBEC

Chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Customs Mr Najeeb Shah asked the industry to prepare itself to implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST) wef April 1, 2017.

NEW DELHI: There will be GST readiness on part of the government and urged the industry to be ready. On the issue of dual control among the states and the Centre, he said “we don’t want to reduce ‘dual’ (GST structure) into duel, chairman, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) while inaugurating a  National conference on GST organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) in New Delhi.

Lack of consensus on the issue of how the new tax, having central and state elements, would be collected and administered is holding up the supporting legislations on the Goods and Service Tax (GST), which the government is keen on introducing from April 1 next year.

He said the CBEC would also look into anti-profiteering mechanism.  "We are very clear that one assessee will be dealing with the administration of either state or the Centre. So the entire cross empowerment issue was, we empower each other to say that in case the state authorities look at SGST issue, they also look at CGST and vice versa," Shah said.

Mr. Shah said, there will be GST readiness on part of the government and urged the industry to be ready. On the issue of dual control among the states and the Centre, he said “we don’t want to reduce ‘dual’ (GST structure) into duel.”

The administration of state or centre will be dealing with one assesses only. So, the entire cross empowerment went was to ensure the suitability empower with each other. The both the administration centre and the state are committed too. I’m sure that an issue will be resolved, added Mr. Shah.

Chairman CBEC also said that the multiplicity of GST rates is the necessity due to the economic and political compulsion. The Government unsure about exact compensation figures for states, may vary between Rs. 10,000 to 20,000 crore, said Mr. Shah.

The central government and state governments have to collect Rs 8 lakh plus crore of revenue which they are currently getting from indirect taxes other than customs. In the course of the GST council deliberations, growth rate of 14% for 5 years for each one of the states has been assumed. It’s a huge assumption and the burden which central government has cast upon itself.

Addressing the conference, Chairman of CBEC said, "I’m sick and tired of hearing from wise people that we should have one rate of GST”. He further said, how can we have a one rate for edible, cars, atta, computers? We cannot have one rate but we can reach one rate 20 years down the line. So, we have to have multiple rates.

We have a wide range of commodities which is not taxed by the state administration, taxed by central excise and service tax regime and vice –versa.

We are doing the great experiments with matching of invoices, no other administration has attempted to this. The matching of invoices will hope and ensure that need for the agency to intervene their entire process will be reduced considerably, said Mr. Shah.

Need for bringing in public domain the compliance rating of each customer, added chairman, Central Board of Excise and Customs.

Others who also spoke during the conference were Mr Sunil Kanoria, President, ASSOCHAM, Mr Sujit Ghosh, Partner & National Head, Advaita Legal, Mr Pratik Jain, Chairman, Special Task Force on GST, Mr Nihal Kothari, Chairman, Mr J.K. Mittal, Co-chairman, National Council on Indirect Taxes, ASSOCHAM and Mr D.S. Rawat, Secretary General.