A Steering Committee been formed under the Co-Chairmanship of Additional Secretary, Department of Revenue and Member Secretary, Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers. This Committee has Members from Department of Revenue, Central Board of Excise & Customs, Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) and representatives of State Governments. This Committee shall monitor the progress of IT preparedness of GSTN/CBEC/Tax authorities, finalisation of reports of all the Sub-Committees constituted on different aspects relating to the mechanics of GST and drafting of CGST, IGST and SGST laws/rules. The Committee shall also monitor the progress on consultations with various stakeholders like trade and industry and training of officers.
Meanwhile, progress is underway to finalise various aspects of GST design like business processes, payment systems, matters relating to dual control, threshold, exemptions, place of supply rules and also making of model GST, SGST and IGST laws and rules. This task is being undertaken through various Sub-Committees formed by the Empowered Committee, which has officers from Government of India as well as State Governments as Members.
Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) is taking steps for preparing the IT infrastructure for roll out of GST. The IT infrastructure shall enable online registration, filing of returns and getting refunds. Various State Governments are also preparing the necessary back end IT infrastructure for implementation of GST, which shall relate to aspects like assessments and audit.
Periodic reviews are being held in the Department of Revenue to monitor the progress of all the above activities.
Source: B S