CBEC asks tax officers to speed up GST migration

The Revenue Department has expressed "serious concern" over delay in migration of excise and service tax assessees to the new GST regime and asked field officers to complete the process by March 31. The Central Board of Excise and Customs, the apex policy making body for indirect taxes, in a communication to the field formations has asked the Zonal Chief Commissioners to submit a weekly progress report beginning March 6. In early January, the CBEC had asked field officers to migrate all existing central excise/service tax assessees to GST portal by January 31, 2017.

"It is a matter of serious concern, that while the migration figure is in range of 50 to 90 per cent for majority of States/Union Territories, the migration with respect of central excise/service tax assessees through CBEC is a paltry 2.94 per cent in central excise and 8.22 per cent in service tax," the CBEC said.

For central excise taxpayers, the process of migration to GST had started since January 20, while for service tax assessees, it begun on February 9.

The CBEC has asked field officers to contact assessees via phone/email who are yet to activate their provisional GST IDs and encourage them to migrate without further delay. "I would urge all field formations to conduct more seminars and training in local language to encourage taxpayers to migrate early by March 31. Advertisements may also be brought out in local newspapers, TV channels, FM radio channels in vernacular language to ensure greater reach," the CBEC said.