The One-year old Goods and Services Tax ( GST ) which is still struggling with the glitches, is successfully making headache to both the tax payers and the practitioners. Till now, the Government has been taking appreciable efforts in these issues. A latest reply by the GST Ploicy Wing and the GSTN to a representation made by the GST Practitioners Association, Maharashtra is an exception to the above.
Earlier this year, the Bombay High Court, while granting an interim relief to M/s Abicor and Binzel Technoweld Pvt. Ltd, expressed concerns over the technical glitches in the present GST system and has even said that the new indirect tax regime is not “Tax-Friendly.”
In the light of the said order, the GST Practitioners Association, Maharashtra had appealed to the Central Government pointing out the issues being faced by the tax payers.
The representation mainly suggested for an alternative modes for return filing, setting up of facilitation centres, removal of late fee in the first year of GST etc. it also suggested that the State Commissioner should extend deadlines without waiting for Council recommendations.
It can be seen that in most of the issues, the department took a defense of the decisions of the GST Council.
With regard to issues relating to imposition of interest on late payment due to portal issues and the re-opening of returns, the Government replied that “The GST Council, in its 26th March, 2018 discussed the issue of grievance redressal especially regarding technical issues faced by taxpayers on the common portal. It was recommended by the council that the GST implementation committee (GIC) shall act as the lT Grievance Redressal Mechanism in this regard Accordingly, the GIC has been taking timely decisions to resolve any IT related issues being faced by the tax payers and recommending the timely issuance of notifications, orders, circulars etc to this effect.”
The cold reply by the department on these issues shows the darker side of GST implementation, most importantly, over dependence on the GST Council.
Unlike the old tax regime, the GST Council is the policy-making body under the new regime and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes, CBIC (Earlier known as CBEC) is a mere puppet to act on its orders.
GST Council is a constitutional body for making recommendations to the Union and State Government on issues related to Goods and Service Tax. The GST Council is chaired by the Union Finance Minister and other members are the Union State Minister of Revenue or Finance and Ministers in-charge of Finance or Taxation of all the States.
It is true that the GST Council is the ultimate and superior authority for taking all the important issues. GST, more than its concept, is something which needs regular attention. The Council members who meet once in a month to discuss tax policies should not be over-burdened to resolve the small things.
Thus, it would be more sensible to delegate some powers to the CBIC and its officials so that the small issues of the tax payers can be resolved in an efficient and timely manner.
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