Principal Secretary of Commercial Taxes, Somesh Kumar, warned the service organisations such as the Telecom companies to pass on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) benefits to the customers, else action would be initiated against the violators as per the anti-profiteering provision.
He said the government would not hesitate to question the organisations that are claiming Input Tax Credit but levying 18% GST on the customers. However, we want to give them some space and time before taking further action, he said, while speaking at a GST awareness programme organised at the Press Club Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Stating that GST transformation in the State was a smooth affair, Mr. Kumar said the department was studying on the actual impact of GST on the common people and initial examination done on 340 goods revealed that customers had benefited due to reduction in prices on most items. “We will come out with a detailed report of GST impact on each item within a week and that will bust several myths,” he said.
Mr. Kumar said the State was likely to be burdened with ₹19,200 crore due to GST on major development and welfare programmes. Half of it would come back as the State’s share in the taxes.
Clear picture
However, he was confident that revenues would increase in Telangana with more traders coming into the system. A clear picture on the revenues would emerge in October when the GST returns would be filed by the traders. Replying to questions, he said common people found the 18% GST as high, but the actual increase was just 1% given that the rest was already being collected under Central excise and various other taxes. Petroleum products were likely to be brought under GST after some time; there is a provision in the GST bill to this effect while excise was exempted to give some financial freedom to the States. V. Anil Kumar, Commissioner of Commercial Taxes M. Satyanarayan Reddy, Additional Commissioner (Enforcement) Laxmi Narayana Jannu, Joint Commissioner (Policy) and Deputy Commissioner U. Srinivasulu were also present.
