With Ernakulam accounting for the lion’s share of central excise and service tax revenue in the State, a free Goods and Services Tax (GST) migration service has been launched at the Central Excise Bhavan, Kathrikadavu. The new service is in addition to the GST Seva Kendra which was opened earlier.
“The new tax regime will be effective from July 1 and all excise and service tax assessees are expected to migrate to the GST platform by April 30,” said Assistant Commissioner Rajan G. George in a statement issued to the press. The GST counter will be open till April 21 and anyone can avail of the services of experienced officials for the migration.
As per departmental data, Kerala has forged ahead of the rest of India in GST migration. While the all-India average for migration to GST in the manufacturing sector is three per cent, Kerala has averaged 10% so far. According to the data, 10% of the present assessees have actually migrated while 14% of them have activated their accounts.
In the service tax sector, the average across India for actual migration to GST is six per cent while in Kerala, 42% has activated their accounts and 14% has actually migrated.
Ernakulam accounts for 95% of the central excise collection of a little over ₹19,000 crore in Kerala. The district also accounts for the bulk of the ₹1,882 crore service tax collection in the State.
Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac had said in his Budget speech that Value Added Tax would be in force during the first quarter of 2017-18 and GST would come into force later. The Budget had also expressed that the introduction of GST would help reduce the State’s revenue deficit from next year.
The State government is also keen to complete the assessments and reassessments under the Value Added Tax regime. The State government had also announced amnesty schemes to achieve the goal.
