Hyderabad: A bumpy ride awaits the rollout of the Goods & Services Tax in the state on July 1.
“Telangana was the first state in the country to pass the GST Bill, but it seems to be in the last place in respect of preparedness for GST. We should have an effective administrative set up for GST. The working pattern of GST is mostly based on tasks for tax officials in a deadline and indicates that there will be huge increase in dealer base, work load for tax officials and the revenue base,” said T Venkateshwarlu, president of the JAC.
He said that since GST is being implemented nationwide based on the principle of on ‘one nation-one tax’, it will be administered by both the Centre, through the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), as well as the State government through the Commercial Taxes Department.
The Centre will administer the Central GST law and the state will administer the State GST law, both of which have common functions and provisions.
“Though both governments have common laws they do not have a common organisational and cadre structure.
“Being the nodal agency for drafting the GST laws, CBEC has prepared the central excise department for the GST working pattern, whereas our state department is still lagging behind,” Mr Venkateshwarlu said.
The existing organisational structure is not suitable for the GST regime, say the protesters. They have demanded reorganisation of the commercial taxes department according to the new working pattern and statutory duties on par with CBEC.
Secretary of the commercial taxes department, Somesh Kumar, dismissed the apprehensions of CTD staff that they would lose their jobs.
He said “There is no threat to staff. Only their roles will change in the GST regime. All these days, they were mostly doing paper work, which will not be the case anymore. In GST, their role will be inspection-based. All these teething troubles will be overcome before GST launches.”
The Centre will administer the Central GST law and the state will administer the State GST law.
