CBEC to be renamed as CBIT under GST regime
The Center is working the composition of the CBEC to make it more comprehensive.
Apex Indirect tax body Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) will be renamed as the Central Board of Indirect Tax (CBIT)once the new national tax framework kicks in from 1^st April, 2017.
Composition of CBIT
CBIT will be headed by –
– A Secretary level officer,
– An Additional Secretary of the Revenue Department, who will be Secretary to the GST Council, also CBIT member for both Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST),
– Six Members, who will look after Customs, Policy and IT System, Central Excise and legal issues, training and litigation,
– Besides, a new legacy commissionerate will be formed for the initial 5 years to handle pending adjudication, audits, legal issues and the like.
Functions of the CBIT
It will implement the rules including exemptions and threshold, to be set up by the GST Council.
According to the Central Government proposal, the entire country will be divided into six regions namely,
– Northern,
– Southern,
– Eastern,
– Western,
– North-eastern and
– Central and
Will be headed by Principal Commissioner – level officer (like in PCIT or Principal Commissioner of Income Tax).
Further, the said regions will be divided into Zones putting certain states together and each zone will be headed by a Chief Commissioner.
Every State will then divided into smaller chunks termed as GST Range so that there are 1,000 assessees in a range.
As per the proposal, the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) will be rechristened as Directorate General of Indirect Tax Intelligence (DGITI). It would be the countrys premier intelligence agency to handle economic frauds and offences related to taxation.
The Organization will be headed by an officer of Director General (DG) – rank. Every state should have regional units headed by an Additional Director General (ADG) – rank officer.
Also a position of Director General (DG) – Risk Management Centre (RMC), is proposed to be created and headed by a Senior Officer of the rank of Director General (DG) – RMC shall identify, develop, update and maintain risk parameters in relation to trade, commodities, services and all stakeholders in the domestic supply chain. It will have a strong data analysis unit to ensure seamless flow of data and information from agencies within and outside the Central and State tax administration.

Below article has been shared by Prabhakar K S. He can be reached at shreetaxchambers@bsnl.co.in