Captured by : Central excise & service tax employees protest against GST council decisions
Central excise, service tax employees
protest against GST decisions
THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The employees of central excise, service tax and customs departments held a one-day symbolic protest by wearing black badges against GST (goods and service tax) council decisions, which they allege are not in the interest of India’s economy.
The protesting employees said that GST council has given too much role to the state governments in the upcoming GST regime, while the state governments are not really equipped to deal with the nature of this work.
A number of indirect taxes will be merged in GST, some of which at present are under central government’s ambit, while some others are in state government’s control. For example, central excise and service tax right now come under central government, while value-added-tax comes under state government.
As and when GST is implemented, it will have three parts “ central government GST (CGST), state government GST (SGST), inter-state GST (IGST). As per a decision taken by GST council, in case of CGST, all the assessment of cases with an yearly turnover of less than Rs 1.5 crore will be with state governments.
In case of IGST, 90 percent of assesses with under Rs 1.5 crore yearly turnover will be with state governments, while only 10 percent will be with the central government.
Overall, this shows that bulk of administration under GST regime will be done by the state government. K Anpazhakan, commissioner of customs, central excise & service tax “ Goa, said, “Service tax is not at all handled by state governments as of now. If large parts of administration are given to state governments, then all our experience will be of no use.”
He continued, “We have recruited so many young officers through UPSC (Union Public Service Commission). We don’t know what will happen to these officers now.”
There are close to 10,000 assesses in Goa, who come under central excise and service tax right now. Once the GST regime comes in, this number will come down to 6,000 to 7,000 for central excise, service tax and customs departments in the State.
The protesting employees even said officers of lower rank from state government’s cadre will be doing the same job as trained higher rank officers, who come through UPSC, which will make it very tough to maintain rank parity.
Besides, the employees said that the decisions taken by GST council will result in chaos for tax-payers.
For instance, the council has decided that there will be dual control of central government and state government both for CGST if yearly turnover is more than Rs 1.5 crore. In such cases, the assesse will always be confused as to who to listen to “ the state government officials or the central government’s.
