GST Council decides how to distribute assessees

Those registered under VAT or/and central excise, their state turnover, including inter-state transactions, will be taken into account

After deciding the basic principle of division of assessees between central and state tax authorities, the goods and services tax (GST) Council has stated how this would be done.

Earlier, the Council had decided a state would have control over 90 per cent of GST payers where turnover of businesses was up to Rs 1.5 crore a year. Over that figure, the state and central officials were to have 50:50 control. The division to be done by computer at the state level, by random choice.

Now, it has been decided that for those registered under Value Added Tax (VAT) or/and central excise, their state turnover, including inter-state transactions, will be taken into account. For those registered only under central excise and not VAT, the annual turnover given in central excise returns will be taken into account.

Those registered under VAT and service tax will be considered on the turnover given in the returns for both, the overlap being excluded. For those registered in only service tax, their turnover in these returns will be taken for the division.

Pratik Jain of consultants PwC says large companies with a national presence, particularly in service sectors like banking and telecom, would like the Centre to administer them, at least to begin with. "However, one would expect consistency in the approach of central and state authorities in tax administration, as the central and state GST laws are almost similar," he says.