Centre, states vie for GST power

Finance minister Arun Jaitley with minister of state for finance Santosh Gangwar and revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia after the GST Council meeting. (Photo: PTI)

In a set back, Centre and states on Friday failed to agree on the issue of who will assess whom under the proposed GST.

Earlier it was decided that state will look at goods tax and Centre at service tax.

However, the issue again cropped up as it was realised that there are some industries or people who are registered as both.

States are demanding control over 11 lakh service tax assesses, and Centre is proposing to do away states having exclusive control over all dealers up to an annual revenue threshold of Rs 1.5 crore.

GST Council on Friday discussed horizontal and vertical division of tax payers under GST.

After GST Council meeting, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said all pros and cons have to be weighed before deciding on the issues of cross empowerment to ensure single interface under GST, which will subsume excise, service tax, VAT and other local levies. “In order to resolve it we will have an informal meeting of the ministers, in order to find a political solution to this problem, and we will try and thrash out a solution on the November 20 between these options or may be a hybrid option of this,” he said.

He said that one asseessee should not be subjected to assessment by multiple assessing officers and there should be clear guidelines on it.

Some state ministers could also meet on November 19 to sort out differences over dual control.

The GST Council, which is a joint forum of Centre and all the state governments will formally meet on November 24 and 25 to decide on host of issues including the dual control and approve draft legislation on IGST, CGST and SGST.