Goods and Services Tax. Photo: iStockThiruvananthapuram: Following the implementation of Goods and Services Tax in the State, the Central Excise and Customs Department is opening offices in small towns to bring retail and wholesale dealers in the tax net and also strengthening enforcement.
Offices are being opened in Attingal, Kattakada and Nedumangad in the capital. Similarly, range offices would be opened in other mofussil centers all over the State.
Before the introduction of GST, the Center collected Excise tax and Kerala levied Value Added Tax. Hence there was no need for mutual interaction between the Center and the Commercial Taxes Department.
Post GST, the Central Excise is also gearing up for ground-level scrutiny like the Commercial Taxes Department. The Commercial Taxes Department would be monitoring the tax remittance and returns filing of 90 percent of the 2.5 lakh traders who have annual sales returns up to Rs 1.5 crore. The Central Excise will look after the remaining 10 percent of traders. In the case of traders with sales returns above Rs 1.5 crore, scrutiny of the filing returns and tax remittance would be equally shared by the Central and State governments.
Whoever detects anomalies first, be it the Central Excise or Commercial Taxes Department, they would initiate penal proceedings against the traders.
The departments would function in a complementary manner and keep each other posted of the cases registered by them. The Central Excise has stopped the checking of goods being exported from the State. Instead of regular inspections, post GST it has become occasional.
