The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has established a high-level working group to analyse a proposal for the centralised administration of GST taxpayers with multiple registrations under the same Permanent Account Number (PAN) across different central tax jurisdictions, to improve seamless business operations.
The proposal aims to address the demand of the industry by analysing whether businesses functioning across various states can be managed by a single central GST authority rather than dealing with multiple field formations for distinct GST registrations.
The 11-member panel, headed by chief commissioner Vinayak Chandra Gupta, will analyse the legal, administrative and technology changes required to implement such a framework.
It will examine the previous centralised registration and Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) procedure under the excise and service tax regime, review international practices, and suggested whehter the proposed framework must be optional or mandatory.
The panel sought to file its report, including with a detailed execution roadmap and draft proposals, within 30 days exhibiting that the government is moving fast on a reform that has been under discussion for various years.
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Before the inception of GST, service providers with operations across India could choose centralised registration, permitting them to deal with a single tax office.
The facility was stopped after GST was introduced in July 2017, requiring businesses to obtain separate GST registrations in every state where they operate and deal with multiple tax authorities for audits, investigations and assessments.
Industry reiterates to the government to obtain a centralised administrative framework, claiming that multiple audits and overlapping compliance provisions surge costs without improving tax administration.
Source: Economic Times
