GST BILLS IN PARLIAMENT LIKELY TODAY
The Union Government is looking to introduce GST supporting legislations in Parliament this week to bring in the new indirect taxation system from July 1.
These bills are most likely to be introduced on Monday and could be taken up for discussion in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The government is likely to introduced these bills as Money Bills, so that only the Lok Sabha, where the NDA has a clear majority need to pass it. However, these bills will also be introduced and debated in the Rajya Sabha. The government is planning to pass these bills this week itself. The budget session of Parliament will end on April 12.
New Delhi, March 26: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) plans to audit the impact of note ban and the effect it has had on the government’s tax revenues, said CAG Shashi Kant Sharma.
In an interview to PTI, he said the auditor is gearing up to audit tax revenues under the new GST regime and has started capacity building and reorienting its audit methodology and procedures.
Among the special audits, CAG has already completed audit of agricultural crop insurance scheme and flood control and flood forecasting and is now engaged in several important audits like Right to Education, National Rural Health Mission, defence pensions and Ganga Rejuvenation, he said. “These reports should be ready by the end of the current year.”
Mr Sharma asserted that CAG has audit jurisdiction over any body or authority which has any relation to government revenues and expenditure and resistance by some like city development bodies, DISCOMs and metro corporations will wither away. “We plan to audit certain issues related to fiscal impact of demonetisation, largely its impact on tax revenues,” he said.
The government had withdrawn old `500 and `1,000 notes from circulation on November 8 last year, and announced a new tax amnesty scheme for those holding unaccounted junked currency.
CAG audit may look into expenditure on printing of notes, RBI dividend payout and banking transaction data. The auditor has also conveyed to the government its stand on
(The September 2014 judgement of the Supreme Court in the telecom case) reinforced an important principle that wherever public resources are being used by private firms for revenue generation, CAG will have a duty to examine as to whether the government is getting due share of such revenue — S.K. SHARMA
CAG
the recent move of the GST Council to delete section 65 of the preliminary draft that authorised CAG to audit GST.
“Our mandate covers GST just like the earlier taxation regimes were covered. We have already started work on restructuring of our revenue audit arrangements to meet this likely challenge when GST is introduced.
“This exercise would include issues of capacity building, data access and analysis, reorientation of audit methodology and procedures and developing end-to-end IT solutions,” he said.
Mr Sharma said executive, legislature, judiciary and audit have clearly demarcated roles and responsibilities. “The framers of our Constitution were fully aware of the concept of checks and balances and hence you find the mention of Judiciary and CAG in the fifth part of the Constitution along with legislature and executive,” he said. — PTI