Commercial Taxes ready for transition to GST regime

Department is geared up to tackle initial hiccups; to do away with 14 inter-State check-posts

In runup to the implementation of GST by central government, textile traders take out a rally in Secunderabad on Wednesday demanding its rollback. Photo: K.V.S. Giri

As the stage is set for the introduction of Goods and Services Tax network, officials of the Commercial Taxes department are gearing up to address the initial hiccups and ensure smooth transition to the new regime.

According to Commercial Taxes department principal secretary Somesh Kumar, there are bound to be difficulties in the transition process, but there is no scope for the transactions to come to a standstill. “There are bound to be some minor irritants. The department is geared up to address these issues,” he said.

The department had completed on hand training for the staff as well as stakeholders through 150 camps and had put in place the hardware and software required for the implementation of the new regime.

“There is still time. The date of filing returns is August 10 and the first payments in the GST regime can be paid till August 20.

There is long time for the first audit and assessment of the returns filed by those enrolled into the GST network,” he said. Registration under the GST was mandatory for traders with over Rs. 20 lakh annual turnover and it was also mandatory for those whose turnover was less than Rs. 20 lakh if they had inter-State businesses.

Seamless trade

The department was doing away with the 14 checkposts operational on the inter-State borders for allowing seamless trade.

These checkposts would be replaced by mobile teams that would conduct random inspections at all vulnerable points to ensure that there are no leakages.

“We are in the process of improving the enforcement and intelligence mechanism and norms to this effect will be evolved soon,” he said.

Business-friendly

The new tax regime was more business friendly, not official friendly, in that the entire supply chain would be mapped and there were provisions like transition forms that would allow traders to get what was due to them. “Migration of a majority of those registered under VAT, central excise and other levies has been completed,” he said exuding confidence that registration of the remaining dealers would also be completed soon.