Tax authorities issuing show-cause notices will have to complete all enforcement and consequential action against the assessee against whom GST evasion was detected, the GST Council has said.

Under the GST regime, states administer and control 90 per cent of the assessees with an annual turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crore.

Assessees with an annual turnover of over Rs 1.5 crore are administered by the Centre and state tax authorities in a 50:50 ratio on computer-based random sampling.

In order to resolve the jurisdictional issues while dealing with enforcement cases, the GST Council has clarified that the tax authorities, whether Centre or state, which initiate the enforcement action will be responsible for completing all consequential actions such as appeal, review, adjudication.

The GST Council Secretariat, in an office memorandum, said that varied practices are being followed by the field formations regarding the issuance of recurring Show Cause Notices (SCNs) as well as other consequential actions in cases where investigation has been initiated and finalised by central tax authorities in respect of the taxpayers under state tax administration and vice versa.

“In some cases, the authority which initiates the investigation is also issuing recurring SCN whereas in some other cases, it is being left for the concerned jurisdictional tax authority, who is administrating the taxpayer, to issue recurring SCN,” it said.

The Council said that a taxpayer located within a state is open to enforcement action by both authorities.

“An enforcement action against a taxpayer, assigned to state tax authorities, can be initiated by the central tax authorities (and vice versa). In such cases, all the consequential action relating to the caseincluding, but not limited to,appeal, review, adjudication, rectification, revision will lie with the authority which had initiated the enforcement action,” the Council Secretariat said.

Refund in such cases maybe granted only by jurisdictional tax authority, administering the taxpayer

Rules set

■ Both Centre and state officials can issue summons on GST issues

■ Whoever initiates the enforcement actions will be responsible for all consequent issues

■ Consequential actions involve appeal, review and adjudication