GST - Single Authority?
IN the CBEC's Outreach Programme at Hyderabad on Monday, CBEC Member, Ram Tirath stated that assessees under the GST will have to deal with only one single authority. The fear of dual control by the State Government and the Central Government on same issues has been haunting the trade ever since GST appeared on the horizon.
Will there be a single authority for registration, SCN, adjudication, appeal, audit, investigation, summons, assessment, returns, refund and other formalities ? Or will there be double trouble with both the State and Central GST authorities breathing down the necks of harried assessees?
In such a situation, the announcement by the CBEC Member is a welcome breeze of oxygen, but unfortunately he didn't elaborate. I tried to contact him and Mr. Upender Gupta, Commissioner, GST to find out if there would be really only one authority for all the above purposes, by phone, mail and SMS, but couldn't succeed.
Some of the likely dual controls could be:
1. As per Section 38 of the Model GST Law, refund application is to be made to the proper officer of IGST/CGST/SGST;
2. As per Section 60, a CGST/SGST officer, not below the rank of Joint Commissioner, can order inspection, search and seizure.
3. Under Section 62, the Commissioner of CGST or the Commissioner of SGST can authorise any CGST/SGST officer to arrest an alleged offender.
4. Section 63 vests any CGST/SGST officer, duly authorised by the competent authority with the power to summon any person.
5. As per Section 64, any CGST/SGST officer authorized by the Additional/Joint Commissioner of CGST or SGST shall have access to any business premises to inspect books of account.
6. Under Section 122, the Commissioner of CGST/SGST or an officer authorized by him may take samples of goods from the possession of any taxable persons.
The model law stipulates that rejection of an application for registration by a CGST officer will be deemed a rejection under the SGST Act also - and vice-versa.