The Andhra Pradesh government has strongly objected to the Centre’s move to treat territorial waters as the territory of Union of India. The stand of the government was forcefully conveyed by the state Finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu at the GST Council 10th meeting held at Udaipur of Rajasthan yesterday.

While discussing the draft model of GST Law provisions and draft Compensation law which are vetted by the Law Ministry, he raised the objection when the issue of taxation powers of the states in the territorial water within the 12 nautical miles came up for discussion.

He observed that proposal to treat territorial waters as the territory of Union of India and to delegate the powers to states to collect tax by the Centre is not proper, particularly when the High Court already decided in favour of states and matter pending in the Supreme Court.

However, he felt happy after getting an assurance from the GST Council that the matter will be referred to the Law Committee for examining the issue.

Raising voice against the proposal to exclude state authorities to adjudicate cases if any issue related to import or export of goods or services are involved is also contested under Integrated GST Act, Yanamala said that the state authorities have been administering CST Act, 1956 and assessing the genuineness of exports as it involves refund of taxes paid at input stage.

Similarly, under IGST Act, the state authorities have to be empowered to ascertain the genuineness of export transactions as it involves huge amounts of refund of taxes paid at the earlier stages, he added.

On the occasion, the minister said he will address a letter to both the GST Council chairman and also the Law Committee expressing the stand of Andhra Pradesh