The trust issues are escalating with more data being shared with states by the center as the finance minister of West Bengal has given a discontentment sign with the data and has objected towards the center that it was manipulating the actual taxpayer base data all the time.
The previous data of 1.1 million has actually not met with the revealed data of 3.05 million taxpaying databases. This situation has increased a trust issue between the states and center and actually created a turmoil with the monetary concealing fact.
Mr. Mitra, in its letter self revealed that, “The minutes of the 1st and the 2nd GST council meeting clearly records a tax base of around 1.1 million for service taxpayers, Suddenly, we find that the service taxpayers number has escalated to 3.05 million out of which 2.64 million are shown as active taxpayers.”
“This implies that the service tax base has grown 3 times over 2 years. What is even more surprising is that even a month ago this fact was not told to the states,” he added.
Various point of agreements was also shoved into the letter with the issue of the differentiated value of value-added tax (VAT), excise and service tax base based on thresholds of Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 20 lakh which were also kept a secret with the states.
S.D. Majumdar, former chairman of the central board of excise and customs has cleared its point by saying that, “In a dual GST model, dual control is inherent. States may find it difficult to monitor service tax assesses since they have never levied service tax till now, They may need the support of the Centre at least in the initial years.”