GST - No Single Authority; It's Dual Control and good too!
13 07 2016 reported about CBEC Member Ram Tirath's statement in Hyderabad on 11.7.2016 that assessees under the GST will have to deal with only one single authority. Board has neither confirmed, reiterated or denied this. They have gone into a silent mode. The silence is broken with a thud by the Revenue Secretary loudly and emphatically proclaiming that it will be dual control and it's good for you according to him.
In an article published in the edit page of the Hindu today, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian glorify the dual control as:
GST would improve - even substantially - tax governance in two ways. The first relates to the self-policing incentive inherent to a valued-added tax.
The second relates to the dual monitoring structure of the GST - one by the States and one by the Centre. Critics and taxpayers have viewed the dual structure with some anxiety, fearing two sources of interface with the tax department and hence two potential sources of harassment. But dual monitoring should also be viewed as creating desirable tax competition and coope ration between State and Central authorities. Even if one set of tax authorities overlooks and/or fails to detect evasion, there is the possibility that the other overseeing authority may not.
There seems to be no clarity even within the Revenue Department with the CBEC Member and the Revenue Secretary, not on the same page on single or dual control. It is this kind of dual confusion, which makes GST look like a monstrousdevil.