New Delhi: Centre and states on Sunday once again failed to agree on the issue of who will assess whom under the proposed GST at an informal meeting.
"The meeting has remained incomplete. Discussions will continue on November 25," said finance minister Arun Jaitley after the over three hour long meeting.
The informal meeting on Sunday was held without civil servants to arrive at a political solution. Centre is racing against time to roll out GST from 1st April.
States are unrelenting on their position of being given right to control all assessees with up to '1.5 crore annual turnover. Now it has been decided that officials will meet again on Monday before the meeting of the all powerful GST Council on November 25. 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 like West Bengal, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have insisted on exclusive control over small taxpayers, who earn less than Rs 1.5 crore in annual revenue, for both goods and services.
Uttarakhand Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh said states demanded exclusive control for both goods and service tax assessees of Rs 1.5 crore and below.
“Centre is agreeable on goods, but is not yielding on services. States are looking at their interest to safeguard their revenue. Centre will have to yield to states to get the CGST and IGST bills passed.
“A middle ground on the issue has to be worked out politically,” she said.
Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac said it is a stalemate and his state is unwilling to compromise as it has virtually given up its taxation rights. State like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Odisha and Uttarakhand, said that small taxpayers cannot be harassed by dual control.
Mr Isaac said Centre prefers to have a vertical split of all dealers for assessment under GST.
“They are taking a rigid stand but I hope good sense will prevail at the Centre,” he said.
