Government to strengthen agency under GST to check tax evasion
New
Delhi: Ahead of the planned GST rollout from July 1, the government is
strengthening the body responsible for detecting tax evasion and will
set up two new agencies, including one for business intelligence and
analytics.
With the goods and service tax (GST) subsuming central
levies like excise duty, service tax and state VAT, the Central Board of
Excise and Customs (CBEC) has reorganised its existing central excise
and service tax field formations to suit the requirements of the new
regime.
The CBEC will itself be rechristened as the Central Board
of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and will supervise GST and Customs
activities and provide the government policy inputs.
The CBIC will
be headed by a chairman and will have six members - for GST; IT, legal
and compliance verification; investigation; tax policy; Customs and
administration and vigilance.
In a letter to the zonal heads, the
human resource arm of the CBEC said the Directorate General of GST
Intelligence (DGGSTI) will be the new name of the existing Directorate
General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI), but with more powers.
The DGSTI will have its task cut out, keeping in view the steep increase in the GST taxpayer base, the letter said.
The
organisation will be headed by a principal director general in Delhi
who will be assisted by four sub-national directors general.
Also,
two new directorates are being created. The Directorate General of
Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM) will have two verticals for
business intelligence and analytics and risk management centre to
provide perspectives for policy formulation.
The Directorate of
International Customs will be created to deal with WTO related matters,
including tariff, as well as the Kyoto Convention, multilateral and
bi-lateral agreements with other countries.
"It will also assist
the board in functions related to the National Trade Facilitation
Committee for implementation of the trade facilitation agreement (TEA)
and Customs procedures for international Trade. All matters of cross-
border trade through Land Customs Stations shall also be handled by this
directorate," the letter said.
Further, the National Academy of
Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN), will be the new form of
the existing National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics (NACEN).
In the GST regime, it will be the only academy of its kind in India that
will provide regular training to officers.
It is also envisaged
that the NACIN will provide training to representatives of trade bodies
and tax professionals. Thus, it will be catering to the training needs
of around 70,000 persons every year.
The role of the Directorate
General of Taxpayer Services under the GST set-up will be to provide
assistance to the taxpayers at their doorsteps, in addition to handling
publicity and public relations, holding seminars and workshops,
attending to queries of taxpayers and coordinating the resolution of
taxpayers' grievances.
PTI
