The cess collected on cars as also tobacco and coal will be used to compensate the revenue loss of states by implementing GST.
GST implementation could happen in September itself, with the next meeting of the Union Cabinet likely to take up the matter.
Elections may be a few months away, but the government may get into election mode much earlier than that, predicts A K Bhattacharya.
Assembly elections coming up in November and December could offer a window of opportunity to the government to make GST attractive through rate cuts.
All eyes will be on whether Sitharaman will deliver a populist budget leaving more money in hands of the common man or push the reform agenda by staying on the fiscal glide path to lower the fiscal deficit to 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2025-26.
The GST Council, headed by Jaitley and comprising representatives of all the states, is scheduled to meet in Srinagar on May 18-19 to finalise tax rates on different goods and services after unifying at least 10 indirect taxes into the Goods and Services Tax.
All goods and services have been put in slabs of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%
The GST Council, that includes representatives of all states, will meet again on November 3-4 to decide on the tax rates
As and when the GST comes in, Budget projections will have to be unbundled and revised. In fact, the pragmatic decision would be to present another Budget! This makes the passage of the Finance Bill with its multiple unrelated amendments seem even more dubious, says Devangshu Datta.
If the government tries to bring in real estate under GST now, it will be a typical case of biting more than what one can chew, says Sukumar Mukhopadhyay.
The GST Council is scheduled to meet next on November 10 and may consider lowering tax rates on a host of goods such as handmade furniture, plastic products and daily use items like shampoo.
A government report revealed that fake companies floated with fake addresses, issued fake GST invoices and generated fake e-way bills, with fake vehicle registration details without supplying any goods causing huge loss to the exchequer.
The changes made in the revised GST draft throw up fresh issues but, overall, most of these look sensible, says T N C Rajagopalan.
Options include raising both excise and service tax rates in FY16
India moving in right direction on GST, says Panagariya.
The GST rates for all but six items were finalised at the first day of the two-day meeting of the GST Council, headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising state representatives.
The final rate will be worked out by the GST Council, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday.
"The industry is looking at a rate of 12-16 per cent. So, it entirely depends on how it gets. But the bigger concern is how the GST is applied," said R Chandrashekhar, president of Nasscom.
Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal on Friday urged the Centre to provide more fiscal powers to the states as well as increase the shareable proportion of the GST collections. Besides, he asked the central government to expedite approval for the semi-high-speed railway line or the Silverline project from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargod. The project is mired in controversies.
Government strategists are trying to ensure that the requisite 16 of the 31 states ratify the Bill by the end of this month
A corpus of Rs 20,000-30,000 crore is under consideration, to narrow the input tax credit cycle and facilitate their working capital requirements.
It is after the GST Network tallies invoice details with shipping bills that the refund claims can be processed. So, the refund could be delayed by over a month.
Trinamool Congress has already announced its decision to boycott the event.
The banking system liquidity bounced back to surplus mode after three weeks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed. This was due to government spending, according to dealers. The liquidity situation could further ease with the disbursement of the last tranche of incremental cash reserve ratio (I-CRR) worth Rs 50,000 crore on Saturday.
'If petro products are brought into GST, then there will be minor impact on the incidence of tax... and minor impact on prices. The price of petrol, diesel will continue to be driven by global factors'
Only luxury and 'sin' items could be left in highest slab. 12 and 18 per cent slabs could be merged in the future
The GST will be a national sales tax that will be levied on consumption of goods or use of services
Dispute between Centre and states over CST set to upset April 2012 deadline.
The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December.
GST reform has been hanging fire since 2006-07.
The opposition parties vehemently criticised the new 'one nation, one tax' system having four different rates instead of a single rate adopted in some countries including the UK and Singapore.
Besides central cess, the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers has also recommended to keep purchase tax and octroi, which are collected at state and local levels, outside the GST framework.
'If my understanding is correct, one has to file not less than 37 returns per year for every ordinary business, and that too per state.' 'If you are doing businesses in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, you have to file 37x3 returns every year!' 'The consequence of GST will be chaos, confusion and possibly economic crisis.'
'The revenue projection arises out of all sectors doing well and the formalisation of the economy helps in making sure the tax domain gets widened.'
Mumbai, which adds 37 per cent to the total direct tax mop-up, has reported tax collection of Rs 4.93 trillion so far, against the full-year target of Rs 5.35 trillion.
Close to 202,000 new entities have registered under the GST Network
Service companies such as Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Airtel, among others, would be particularly hit.
'GST will bring in much needed transparency and higher investments in the coming years and we hope that a few percentage points to India's GDP.'
GST will create a single, unified Indian market to make the economy stronger.
GST impact: Higher lease payouts may hit airlines, cab aggregators.
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