It’s time for uncertainty as the Indian Revenue Service officers are in very much confusion regarding the decision which GST council threw upon the central board of revenue. The decision has been seen in a very panicked way as the imposed rule will flush out almost all the population of employees comprising the central board. In this regard Association of Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officers has also mailed a letter to the prime minister to seek redressal into this matter.
The GST council has given a stern decision of assessed base to be governed by the ratio 90:10 in which states will have the authority over 90 percent of the taxpayer base and the rest be with the center. The ratio has been criticized by the central staff and has now demanded a 50:50 ratio. The demands also seek the justice in the matter of territorial waters as the taxation rule has been changed and now the revenue collection at territorial waters can not be earned directly by states.
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President of IRS Association Anup K Srivastava mentioned some of the crucial points in the letter, “This decision would lead to the assessee base of the CBEC becoming extremely small bringing into risk the very survival of the department. The vertical division in the ratio of 90:10 below Rs 1.5 crore could lead to only 18% of the assessee base being available with the Centre, With this ratio, the Centre may lose revenue of about Rs 1.1 lakh crore.”
The letter also included some more points like, “Besides, IGST assessment errors by state officials would go outside the oversight of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and Public Accounts Committee, At present, big service tax assessees in sectors such as aviation, telecom and insurance face just one tax assessment point; but in the new GST, they will face 30 tax administrations. This belies the promise of ‘One Nation One Tax‘.”
“Under Article 258 of the Constitution, the delegation of power by the Centre to the states is an extraordinary power used “only where the central bureaucracy isn’t available, The IRS officers have high, specialized expertise in dealing with complex items such as GST than a generalist IAS. But, there was no revenue service representation in the GST Council to give expert advice. The CBEC chairman was only an invitee.” the letter included.
