Hyderabad: The Telangana state government on Monday agreed to a proposal put forth by the Centre on the sharing of powers for control over taxpayers under GST.
According to state finance minister Etela Rajender, all the states barring West Bengal have supported the Centre on this issue and it was decided to defer the implementation of the GST regime to July 1 as against April 1.
“In the meeting, the Centre agreed to the demand of states to go in for a horizontal split with regard to taxpayers based on the annual turnover. Following this, all the states barring West Bengal have expressed their support,” Mr Rajender said.
He had attended the ninth meeting of GST Council held in New Delhi on behalf of the Telangana government. The GST Council, which comprises Union finance minister and all state FMs, is the apex body under the GST Act and it is empowered to decide everything about the GST.
He said, as per the agreement reached, the states will have powers to assess and administer 90 per cent of the taxpayers, who have an annual turnover of less than Rs 1.5 crore. The remaining taxpayers would be administered by the Centre. With respect to taxpayers having more than Rs 1.5 crore turnover, States and the Centre will control and administer them in 50:50 ratio.
The Telangana government has also sought tax exemption on agriculture produce and a lower tax rate on items used by common people. Mr Rajender said the Centre has decided to hold another round of meeting on Febuary 18 to sort out pending issues.
