Commercial Taxes department principal secretary Somesh Kumar has said plans are afoot to reorganise the organisational structure of the department once the Goods and Services Tax network becomes operational from July 1.
The restructuring/reorganisation would, however, start after a couple of months as the department has to observe the impact of the new regime at least for two months.
He allayed apprehensions of a section of employees that the existing staff members would be irrelevant consequent on the introduction of the GST network.
He asserted that there was no scope for retrenchment or pruning of the staff and said the new regime would usher in a major change in the roles of the staff.
Employees’ role
“The roles presently played by the employees will change. They will become more relevant if they adapt to the change and perform accordingly,” he said.
Asked about the scope for change in the nomenclature of the department, he said there was no proposal to change the nomenclature. “The name Commercial Taxes is generic and acceptable. There is no hurry to change the name as we also look after the value added tax and other levies that continue on products like petroleum. We will take a look at changing the nomenclature if legally required,” he said.
Asked about the concerns expressed over the impact of the GST on projects like Mission Bhagiratha, he said tax on the work relating to irrigation was expected to be around 18 per cent in the new regime and this could pose an additional burden of close to ₹19,200 crore.
“We will raise the issue during the Goods and Services Tax Council meeting on June 30 ahead of launch of the new regime on the same midnight seeking necessary exemptions,” he said.
