GST: IRS officers body wants Centre's control on service tax

An association representing thousands of revenue service officers today sought Centre's control over service tax assessees under Goods and Services Tax (GST) having turnover of less than Rs 1.5 crore and raised concern over demand from few states, including West Bengal, of controlling them.
In a letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) officers' association apprehended rise in blackmoney and tax evasion if states are given control over such assessees.
Other than West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Delhi, Odisha and also commercial tax officers working across the country under the state governments jurisdiction have also supported demands for control over service tax payers having less than Rs 1.5 crore turnover.

"The move towards GST is aimed at simplifying the tax structure, widening the tax base, reducing tax-evasion and incentivising the honest tax payers. It is supposed to be a win-win situation for all the stakeholders viz the taxpayers, Central and state government.
"The proposal for having divided control over the assessees with all assessee having revenue less than Rs 1.5 crore being monitored only by state government is in conflict with the very root and premise of having GST. It will lead to rampant tax evasion, confusion and chaos amongst assesses due to different interpretations of issues by different states from J&K to Kerala," it said.

The association represents over 2,000 IRS officers.