CBEC officers protest against state control in draft GST law

CBEC officials are upset about the ceding of ground to states in the GST council on crucial issues that they argued would impact the ease of doing business and bring in ‘inspector raj’

Remya Nair

Finance minister Arun Jaitley.

Officials of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) who wore black bands on Monday were not just protesting against the formula for sharing administrative control with states under the goods and services tax (GST) regime. They are also upset about the ceding of ground to states in the GST council on crucial issues that they argued would impact the ease of doing business and bring in “inspector raj”.

CBEC is pushing for a single registration system for large service providers in sectors like aviation, banking, insurance and information technology and also a settlement commission as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism to resolve disputes under GST.

It is also seeking the removal of powers vested with tax authorities in the draft GST law for revision of orders even after 5-6 years, in line with the existing provisions in state value-added tax laws, arguing that it does not bring finality and closure to tax cases.

It is also proposing to scrap the clause that allows tax officials to check vehicles in transit. However, none of these proposals finds favour with states.

“It is highly desirable for the GST council to do away with these archaic provisions of the draft GST law accepted under pressure from states to truly make the pan-India movement of goods seamless,” said a press statement of the CBEC officers’ union.

Source: livemint