By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, MAY 01, 2017: IN her latest letter, the CBEC Chairperson, Ms Vanaja Sarna, has stated that three proposals relating to grant of Apex Grade to 1981-82 batches, HAG+ to 1984-85 and HAG to 1986-87 batches had been sent to UPSC and the UPSC has granted time for DPCs for all the three proposals on May 9, 2017.

She has noted that on the GST front, five States - Telangana, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have passed the SGST Acts as on date. With regard to Rules, as on date, 14 Rules have been put up in public domain.

She has highlighted that in the coming months, the Revenue Secretary has planned to undertake GST-related outreach activities for industry and trade in the form of addressing large Town Hall meetings at various places. With respect to GST Migration Seva Kendra, the Chairperson has proposed that these centers should be converted into full fledged GST SEVA KENDRAs to cater not only to assistance in migration but for providing the entire gamut of taxpayer services such as trade awareness, education and hand holding. She has urged all Superintendents and senior Inspectors to utilize their vast experience in effective outreach and hand holding of assesses in the GST regime.

She has also talked about the creation of Prosecution Management Module (PMM) in her letter. PMM is a part of the MIS under CBEC-DDM portal for efficient monitoring and administration of prosecution cases. This was one of the major recommendations in the 63rd report of the PAC (Sixteenth Lok Sabha) on "Administration of prosecution and penalties in Central Excise and Service Tax". PMM would facilitate capturing of prosecution data in a user-friendly manner on a real-time basis, accurate and prompt reporting, and also digitization of critical documents. To begin with, she noted that field-formations would be required to upload legacy data pertaining to Central Excise and Service Tax.