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Computers will decide the fate of GST taxpayers.



GST- which has already derailed is certainly going to miss the deadline of 1 April 2017. The fix which the biggest indirect tax reform is facing is of the administrative control upon the taxpayer. In the recent GST Council Meet no conclusion was reached upon this issue and the next meeting has been scheduled for December 23 and December 24.

Centre is devising a method that the computers will select 5% taxpayers and allocate them to centre and the state authorities on random basis. Justification for such a system is Computer Assisted Scrutiny Selection (CASS) followed by the Income Tax Department. They say that even under Income Tax, Assessee is not sure as to who is going to assess his income. But what they have forgotten is that the assessee under Income Tax does know under whose jurisdiction his PAN number falls and which wing of the department is likely to assess him. There is absolutely no confusion as to which authority he has to approach. Under GST, they are proposing at that at the beginning of the financial year, computer will pick and choose the taxpayer for scrutiny purposes and allocate them to centre or states. No consideration shall be given to the turnover of the taxpayer.

In such a scenario when the lethargic government departments are already having huge assessment back logs and they don’t have the habit of completing the assessments in time, it looks like as if government coming out with superficial solutions. There is a huge difference between the mind sets which the centre and state authorities carry. Till the time all are brought at the same platform by bringing behavioral change, horizontal mode of selection for assessments will be a big failure. Moreover what would happen in the cases where every year the assessment goes to a different authority? How will files move from one authority to other, will taxpayer has to that job. Red Tapism, Duplicity of documents shall begin as there will be difference of opinions, different organization structure and many others. What would happen in a scenario where the cases pending with first appellate or second appellate authority take years to decide? Which authority shall be held accountable in case of errors or harassment caused to taxpayers?

It is dream that our tax regime will become online because even today we are far away from using the technology in right manner. If such confusion relating to audits and assessment is going to arise every year, think about the business unit who has already been burdened with 37 returns in a year bundled with number of audits and assessment procedure. It looks like we are going far-far away from what we call – Ease of Doing business.     

by:
Keshav R Garg
(B.Com, FCA, CS, ISA (ICAI))
Faculty for GST: Indirect Tax Committee of ICAI
Author: Bharat's GST Ready Reckoner
            A Handbook on GST
Adviser for GST: Industries Association of Chandigarh 
Member: Indirect Tax Committee of CII, PHDCCI, MyGst.MyTax Foundation
Address: 3328, Sector 27 D, Chandigarh, India - 160 019
Phones: +91-172-461-3328, +91-98880-90008
Mails: mygst.mytax@gmail.com, keshavgarg@kdai.in

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