Lack of political will and inter political party issue have derailed the entire process of launching Goods and Service Tax. It seems that GST which was supposed to be implemented this year may not see the light of the Day till the general elections 2014. Chairman of Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers looks in to the implementation of proposed new indirect tax regime and is responsible to prepare framework of GST has already resigned from the post . Now, centre has to work to appoint new chief of panel and has to work hard to get GST launch on back track. Even thereafter, the government has to introspect that as to whether they have a fool proof infrastructure to implement biggest ever tax reform in post independence history of India. Any decision taken in hurry will jeopardize interest of common man. Existing laws needs answers to many questions. The lacunas prevailed after introduction of Negative list based Service Tax still needs to be addressed. Many questions have been remained unanswered. Government talks about simplified tax structure but has failed to do so by introducing complex provisions which even many of the officers fail to comprehend.
After much fanfare government introduced Negative List based Service Tax but failed to ensure adequate infrastructure is in place. The automation of central excise and service tax commonly known as ACES is the only tool for the tax payer to interact with Government. The series of extension of return filing date and lacunas prevailing in return filing utility clearly shows how ill-equipped Government is. There are hundreds of questions raised by tax payers regarding service tax registration and filing of new returns in ACES, but it seems it is falling on deaf ears. It is the responsibility of government to come to rescue of their people. ACES has been miserably failed to implement and execute policies of Government. It’s a scam, as 700 crores went into drain.
Last year, the Board came out with an Education Guide to educate tax payers and tax administrators; however it is mockery only as it does not hold any legal backing and the same fact has also been incorporated in the education guide itself. CBEC has published a disclaimer with the preamble of the Guide, hence reducing the same to mere paper without any legal backing. Hence, if a single step like introduction of negative list based service tax leads common man to end up at the door step of experts as the departmental officers are themselves puzzled to decode the complex tax provisions, then one can imagine the situation after implementation of Goods and Service Tax. Hence, it is in the best interest of the tax payer as well as tax administrators that Government ensures proper infrastructure and a simplified tax, before forcing the same on the public.