The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has decided to include all taxes collected under the Acts during 2015-16 and subsumed under GST in the definition of Revenue.
The decision was taken following a suggestion made by Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu at the meeting on Wednesday. Addressing the meeting, the Minister said, “The term revenue should take all the amounts collected under the taxation Acts which are now being subsumed in GST.
The reversal of input tax credit need not be included separately in the definition of the revenue.”
Mr. Ramakrishnudu said he was not in favour of the imposition of cess. At the time of introduction of VAT in 2005, the compensation to the States for revenue losses was given only from Consolidated Fund of India he pointed out.
He, however, was quick to add that the cess should be discontinued at the end of five years if the Council was in favour of the cess. The cess should be merged with the regular taxes.
Referring to cross empowerment, the Minister said the State Government tax authorities should have administrative control over all the tax payers whose turnover was less than Rs 1.5 crore irrespective of the goods or services that they deal with.
And regarding the dealers whose turnover is over and above Rs 1.5 crore, the administration of tax payers should be allocated between the Central and State government authorities in proportion to the number of VAT dealers and Service Tax assessees dealt at present by the state and the Central Government Tax authorities respectively, he said.
