The Centre is likely to issue a notification on Friday permitting the State government to have an electronic-declaration system to monitor inter-State movement of goods till the Central e-way billing comes into force.
Kerala has consistently demanded that the Centre issue the notification in line with a decision of the 17th Goods and Services Tax Council meeting on June 18 that drafted a one-sentence rule permitting States to have their own system till the Central e-way bill rules were finalised.
The demand has been made in the wake of the council decision to scrap border check-posts in all States from July 1 and in the absence of a monitoring system to check smuggling of goods for the past five months. Instances of traders furnishing fake bills too have been reported from different parts of the State.
Tax sleuths have been forced to remain mute spectators for want of authority to crackdown on tax evaders and this has led to a fall in tax collection and an eventual revenue crunch. Under the value-added tax regime, the State has an e-declaration system for monitoring inter-State goods movement through various channels.
Based on the council decision, the State government has prescribed documents to be furnished for carting goods to the State. But when an intelligence squad of Mattancherry tax district intercepted and seized a vehicle for violating the mandatory rules laid by the State, the traders moved the High Court and the court ruled in their favour since the Centre had not notified the documents to be carried for inter-State goods movement. The court order came as a blessing for those smuggling goods without any inspections.
Finance Minister T.M.Thomas Isaac has relentlessly pursued the issue and urged the Centre to issue the notification. Now the Centre is understood to have taken steps to issue the notification on Friday. While the State is facing revenue loss, the Centre has been getting its share from all transactions in any part of the country and that is being cited as one of the reasons that has prompted the Centre to delay the notification.
The State would now be able to have its own system to scrutinise inter-State trade and that would help to contain tax evasion to a considerable extent, sources said.
