With the Centre moving ahead to bring the proposed GST (Goods and Services Tax) Act into force from 2017, the State government has begun an exercise to find the hurdles that may arise in implementing the new tax system. State Commercial Taxes Department constituted four sub- committees involving senior officials of the department. Commercial Taxes Department Commissioner V Anil Kumar would head all the committees.
The Committees would study issues like fixing the rates of taxes under the umbrella of GST and the mechanism needed to settle disputes.
The officials said the preparedness of the government in the effective implementation of the new tax structure, the impact of the GST on manufacturers, traders and consumers and the readiness of the tax payers for paying taxes under the GST would also be studied by the Committees.
The reports submitted by these Committees would be submitted to the Centre during the series of meetings organised by the Union government in the next one year. The hurdles in the implementation by the State would be addressed in consultation with the Centre. The officials said the States feared about the revenue losses in the first few years of its implementation and were demanding compensation for at least first five years.
The finance ministry had proposed to compensate States for three years for losses that may be incurred on account of switching to a nationwide GST regime.The sources said Telangana government would place certain demands before the Centre to ensure that no negative impact was there on State from the new tax regime.
The Hans India,24 Oct 2016
