The State government is gearing up to usher in Goods and Services Taxes (GST) through modernisation of the Commercial Taxes Department and imparting training to officials.
Presenting the revised budget for 2016-17 in the Assembly on Friday, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac said that the Taxes Department needed to be duly equipped for introducing GST.
It has been proposed to give intensive training for department personnel.
Modernisation of offices is on the anvil. Only 50 per cent of the tax returns are being scrutinised at present.
A new scrutiny system will be introduced by linking different modules of Kerala Value Added Tax Information System.
Amnesty scheme
The government has served notice on 20,000 traders who have not availed themselves of a Taxpayer Identification Number even after earning more than Rs.60 lakh and have been paying a presumptive tax.
Their exact number is likely to exceed one lakh.
As per the amnesty scheme, such presumptive taxpayers would have to pay the tax at scheduled rate and 5 per cent of the gross rate of their declared unaccounted purchases.
All penalties would be waived in the case of such traders. They would have to remit 30 per cent of the fixed amount in one instalment and the rest in 12 equal monthly instalments.
