Panaji
GST will subsume most indirect taxes, with certain exceptions. At the moment, central excise and service tax directly go to the Central government, but Value Added Tax (VAT) falls under the ambit of the State government. This will undergo a drastic change when GST is implemented, as it will absorb all these taxes.
K Anpazhakan, Commissioner of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax - Goa, said, “GST is not applicable for businesses with annual turnover of less than Rs 20 lakh. The State government will handle 90 per cent of assesses with the annual turnover between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 1.5 crore, while the Central government will handle the remaining 10 per cent.” He continued, “The split is 50:50 between the Central government and the State government, when it comes to assesses having an annual turnover of more than Rs 1.5 crore.”
Given that most business establishments in Goa are small, it seems that the bulk of administration will be undertaken by the State government, when GST gets implemented.
So, what will be the role of Central government departments under the new GST regime? Anpazhakan replied, “We will have an anti-evasion commissionerate and an audit commissionerate. Under the anti-evasion commissionerate, we will be empowered to initiate action against assesses evading tax, whether they fall under the Central government or State government. But, under the anti-audit commissionerate, we will have the authority to conduct audits for only those assesses falling under the Central government.”
Based on this, it seems that the Central government tax departments will play more of a supervisory role once GST is rolled out, while, the State government will have to do much of the tax administration.
Sources informed that around 7,000 assesses file service tax every year in Goa and their tax administration is entirely handled by the Central government. GST will subsume service tax, and therefore, a large number of service tax assesses will be administered by the State government. Similarly, 500-600 assesses file central excise tax returns annually, and a large number of these will come under the State government, as GST will absorb central excise tax as well.
