Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is set to make the official declaration of the restructuring of the State Goods and Services Tax (GST) department here on Thursday. As part of the revamp, the department is divided into three wings – taxpayer service, audit, and intelligence and enforcement – to improve efficiency and streamline various services it renders.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal said the revamped department will enhance revenue collection and provide better taxpayer services to people, along with preventing tax evasion and bringing professionalism and specialisation. Kerala is the first State in the country that has completely revamped the GST department after the Goods and Service Tax Act came into force.
The taxpayer services will handle monitoring of tax returns filings, scrutiny of monthly returns, refunds, and adjudication of show-cause notices, while the audit wing will henceforth check the correct tax liability of traders. The intelligence and enforcement wing is tasked with detecting and preventing tax evasion.
After the revamp, the entire examination and adjudication of GST registration applications submitted by traders will be carried out from the Centralised Registration Unit. This is expected to facilitate timely and speedy grievance-free disposal of registration applications, said Mr. Balagopal.
Earlier, registration applications were processed by the GST offices of the respective places.
Tax revision likely
The Finance Minister also hinted at tax revisions in the Budget 2023 to be presented by the end of this month. In reply to questions, the Minister said there were some tax slabs that were not revised for the past 30 years which will be revised in tune with the times. The professional tax levied by the government is one among them which needs to be revised, the Minister hinted.
Source: The Hindu
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/keralas-revamped-gst-department-to-function-from-thursday-tax-revision-likely/article66387741.ece
