Sitting on ivory towers

[Bharath Kumar]

The storm of  GST  is fast approaching and is  just twenty days away from the coast of Indian subcontinent. But out of almost   80 lakhs of assessees, I doubt whether atleast 10% of the assessees are prepared to face the GST.In my own case, one company with ₹ 600 crores is still struggling to educate their persons and to upload new rate of tax in thousands of commodities.While it is being so, most of the Central and State  officers do not even know the basics of GST as this is the kitchadi of Service Tax, Central Excise and VAT. The GST Schedule is the replica of Central Excise Act which diametrically opposite to the simple Schedule of VAT  running to just 10 pages in contrast to more than 300 pages of GST.Not only with that. We have to go  furthur to refer the Heading of Central Excise tariff rates also..These are all new to State officers and it will take years together  to understand  those complexity of 175 sections of GST Act..The reverse charge mechanism is new to State officers while disputes of intra state or interstate is new phenomenon to Central officers.The idea of issuing notices first by whom  is the basis for initiation of revision of assessment by State officer or Central officer as the case may be is most confusing.The dealers and the officers should have clarity to the maximum possible  before venturing into implementation of GST. Mr.Arun Jaitly should be patient rather than desperate in fixing  the  deadline.

Unless it is postponed to September 2017 and meanwhile uninterrupted follow up action  in all fronts is made, only God alone can save this country.

BY K.Palaniswamy Deputy Commissioner(Commercial Taxes) Rtd Coimbatore Cell  93666-19752