The Kerala Goods and Service Tax Department has issued a circular regarding functions of Proper officers namely scrutiny, assessment, detention, seizure, release, and refund.
Presently, the scrutiny of annual returns for the year 2017-18 is being done. Since defect notices are given after a larger time span, the defects perpetually get accumulated. The dealers will find it challenging to remit the consequent taxes, penalties, and interest being substantially larger amounts. The tax compliance mechanism will thus get much more complicated, and the dealers forced to pursue long-driven litigation.
If the monthly returns filed by the dealers are verified monthly, and errors immediately brought to their notice, the dealers can rectify those defects through their next return itself. The dealers would rather see it as an opportunity to rectify their defects since the pecuniary consequences for monthly returns would be much lesser than pecuniary consequences of accumulated defects detected in annual return scrutiny. To make it more effective, maximum risk-based monthly scrutiny shall be carried out by the concerned vertical.
Since the monthly return scrutiny is rather concerned about the mathematical accuracy and other technical aspects of that monthly return, the officers in the cadre of Assistant State Tax Officers are also assigned with the functions of scrutiny of monthly return.
The Assistant Commissioner or State Tax Officer in charge of an office shall assign the monthly returns that are to be scrutinized by the Assistant State Tax Officer based on the availability of the Assistant State Officer in that office.
At present, notices issued by the intelligence and audit wing are being adjudicated by the same verticals. As a result, the intelligence and audit systems have shifted from their core functions to adjudication, appellate proceedings, court proceedings, and arrears recovery. This affects the professionalism of intelligence and audit systems.
The above problems will come to an end when the notices issued by the Intelligence vertical are adjudicated by the assessment verticals since this is part of their main function.
Henceforth all the show cause notice issued by the Proper Officer belonging to the Intelligence formation shall be transferred to the officer belonging to the respective jurisdictional assessment (taxpayer services and dispute resolution) vertical.
It has also been decided that Assistant State Tax Officers shall also be assigned with the functions of issuance of show-cause notices and orders under section 73 of the Kerala State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and IGST Act, 2017 based on pecuniary jurisdiction of tax amount involved. The Joint Commissioners of State Tax shall reallocate adjudications within the officers under their administrative control so as to optimize the utilization of available human resources.
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