By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 16, 2017: SURPRISING all the quarters of the economy the GST Council today resolved all the issues relating to dual control, cross-empowerment under the IGST; jurisdiction in the territorial waters and a new deadline for rolling out the GST.

As per the inputs gathered and the statement of the GST Council Chairman, Mr Arun Jaitley, the Centre has conceded the turf as much as 90% to the States for the assessees having turnover up to Rs 1.5 Crore. This means the CBEC will audit only 10% of the assessees below Rs 1.5 Crore and the audit drill would be a computer software aided exercise.

For assessees above Rs 1.5 Crore the Centre and the States will have equal jurisdiction for audit which means 50/50.

So far as the Anti-evasion work is concerned, the Centre and the States will have equal jurisdiction across the board. There is no vertical split to deal with the problem of tax evasion. Both the CBEC Commissionerates and the State GST authorities will have equal jurisdiction and a methodology is to be worked out for their smooth functioning.

As regards the territorial waters, the Centre once again conceded the point of view of the States and the Council agreed to vest powers in the States under the IGST for taxing transactions in the territorial waters and also for keeping the revenue earmarked for the coastal States.

As regards the date to roll-out the GST, the FM said that the broad consensus is to target July 1, 2017 so that the trade and industry and also the GST Network get sufficient time to get ready for the new regime.