IRS OFFICERS WANT FM TO STEP IN ON GSTN

Wednesday, 14 September 2016 | Pioneer News Service | New Delhi

The association of Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers has strongly opposed the idea of promoting a private company — Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) — to create Information Technology infrastructure for GST and composition of Revenue Secretary-led GST council secretariat. The officers from IRS (Customs and Central Excise) have also sought immediate intervention of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the issue.

Opposing the composition of GST council secretariat, it demanded that the IRS officers be allowed to man it rather than those from Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

"Management of GSTN be entrusted to Directorate General, Systems of Central Board of Excise and Customs, as GSTN is a newly created Special Purpose Vehicle, which does not have any experience in implementing any IT project or domain knowledge in Indirect Tax laws," the association said in a statement. The cadre strength of IRS (Customs and Central Excise) is nearly 3,000.

It further said since the GSTN is funded by the Central and State Governments, there is no justification in entrusting its management to private individuals with heavy salary and allowance. "DG system has experience of implementing mega pan-India IT projects for over 20 years and has the necessary domain knowledge and expertise to manage GSTN," said the body.

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy too has opposed the majority stake for private entities in GSTN and has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi objecting to this. He has questioned the Rs300-crore grant allegedly being given by the Finance Ministry to the privately held special purpose vehicle for GST rollout. He also held that the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) can perform the same work at much less expense.

The Government of India holds 24.5 per cent stake in GSTN while State Governments together hold another 24.5 per cent.

The balance 51 per cent equity is with non-Government financial institutions, like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and LIC Housing Finance.

The Union Cabinet on Monday approved appointment of the Secretary (Revenue) as the ex-officio Secretary to the GST council and inclusion of the chairperson, CBEC, as a permanent invitee. Revenue Secretary has always been an IAS officer.