With tempers rising on intolerance, it will be hard to run House proceedings.
The annual Finance Bill may soon become far less exciting as the government plans to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding tax proposals in Budget. Once the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) and Goods and Services Tax (GST) are in place, the finance ministry will adopt a public discussion approach for most future decisions, while confining the annual exercise to a few procedural changes.
Rama Krishna Sangu, partner, Manohar Chowdhry & Associates, Chartered Accountants, and a member of the Indirect Tax Committee of ICAI, fielded readers' questions on GST on Rediff Chat.
The final rate will be worked out by the GST Council, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday.
GST is the biggest revenue shake-up since independence
Chairman of the committee S S Ahluwalia has sought an extension.
A GST roll-out by April 1 looks difficult, giving the companies some succour.
India's opposition parties have sharply criticized the Union Budget, calling it inadequate to address the country's economic woes and accusing the BJP-led government of using it to woo voters in Bihar and Delhi ahead of upcoming elections. Leaders from the Congress, TMC, DMK, SP, and CPI(M) voiced their disapproval, highlighting concerns over inflation, unemployment, and the lack of substantial measures to support the agricultural sector and the poor. They also criticized the tax cuts for the middle class as insufficient and coming too late after years of high taxes and rising prices.
Once the GST is passed, the centre and states will have to adopt their own law.
The 47th GST Council meeting that is currently underway is slated to discuss a host of issues, including a mechanism for compensating states for revenue loss, tax rate tweaks in some items and relaxed registration norms for small online suppliers. Further, the meeting of the Council, chaired by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state counterparts, will also clear levying the highest tax of 28 per cent on online games, casinos and horse racing, besides, measures to curb tax evasion, especially devising ways to tackle high-risk taxpayers in GST. "The meeting is being chaired by Hon'ble Union Minister of Finance @nsitharaman and many important decisions are expected to be taken at the meet," PIB Chandigarh tweeted.
Even if the GST rate is 18-20 per cent, there would be no average impact on inflation.
For supply rules, the location decides where goods or services will be taxed.
The broad trends of GST collections will make you wonder if indeed the biggest indirect tax reform in the country has led to a real improvement in revenues, notes A K Bhattacharya.
The disagreement between the Centre and states continued over administrative powers.
'Perhaps GST was too complex a system for the Indian economy at its present stage of development,' argues T N Ninan.
Govt looking for common ground on GST; hopes to pass it soon.
"To begin with, people could face some difficulties because any changeover has its own problems. But it will settle down and the country will benefit from the new indirect tax regime," Jaitley said at an event organised by ABP News.
The output of eight key infrastructure sectors expanded by 2 per cent in September, though the growth was slower than the 9.5 per cent registered in the same month last year, according to official data released on Wednesday. The output of these sectors had contracted by 1.6 per cent in August. Out of the eight key sectors, three -- crude oil, natural gas and electricity -- recorded negative growth in September.
India SME Forum, an organisation for small and medium businesses, has called for creating a dedicated fund of Rs 5000 crore for the export capacity development, promotion, and marketing of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in its Budget recommendation. The forum for MSMEs with over 98,000 members said that to enhance India's global competitiveness and increase its market share in global exports, it was "crucial to increase the number of active exporters and enable at least 3-4 lakh first-time micro, small, and medium exporters while supporting them in promoting Indian products globally."
Jaitley has pledged to narrow the deficit to 3.9 per cent of GDP in this fiscal year from 4.0 per cent in 2014/15.
The macro-economic situation has been brought under control: Godrej.
Petroleum being out of the goods and services tax initially will create some anomaly as tax credit on some of the inputs to oil industry may not be given, said revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia.
"After the meeting which took place in Srinagar last week, it is safe to say that GST will be levied across the country starting July 1," Gangwar told ANI.
Accusing the Congress of creating obstacles in the path of growth and economy, he declared that the government would try to get the bill passed with the help of parties
A final call will be taken by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday.
Asked about the Congress's opposition to the GST Bill, Santosh Kumar Gangwar said no party opposes GST outside Parliament.
Opposition politicians on Wednesday stalled a last minute attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to pass the Goods and Service Tax bill.
The GST Council in its meeting next week is likely to consider a proposal for making changes in the monthly tax payment form -- GSTR-3B, which would include auto-population of outward supplies from sales return and non-editable tax payment table, officials said. The move would help curb the menace of fake billing, whereby sellers would show higher sales in GSTR-1 to enable purchasers to claim input tax credit (ITC), but report suppressed sales in GSTR-3B to lower GST liability. Currently, GSTR-3B of a taxpayer includes auto drafted input tax credit (ITC) statements based on inward and outward B2B supplies and also red flags any mismatch between GSTR-1 and 3B.
A slew of challenges that are yet to be resolved include the lack of consensus between the Centre and states over the GST exemption threshold limit, dual control over scrutiny and assessment
'We are not asking for incentives, but at least taxation can be aligned such that the rupee tax on consumers remains the same.'
The government wants to introduce a nationwide goods and services tax to revive its stalled reform programme.
The gross GST revenue collected in the month of December 2021 is Rs 1,29,780 crore of which CGST is Rs 22,578 crore, SGST is Rs 28,658 crore, IGST is Rs 69,155 crore (including Rs 37,527 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 9,389 crore (including Rs 614 crore collected on import of goods), informed the ministry of finance on Saturday. The government has settled Rs 25,568 crore to CGST and Rs 21,102 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue of the Centre and the states in the month of December 2021 after settlements is Rs 48,146 crore for CGST and Rs 49,760 crore for the SGST.
The list of exempted goods from central excise duty has shrunk from 400 items in 2011-12 to 300 now.
E-way bill generation, which is related to paying Goods and Services Tax (GST) and a key high-frequency indicator of economic activity, may have fallen to a five-month low in April as more cities experience lockdowns due to a surge in Covid-19 cases. In April e-way bill generation may decline to 55-58 million, which is the lowest since at least November. On the higher side, it is a 17 per cent decline over March.
Both houses of Parliament were prorogued on Friday, almost a month after being adjourned sine die, ending the possibility of an extension of the Monsoon session in the face of continued stand-off between government and opposition.
Grains, non-mineral water might be on the list; biscuits, butter and cheese might attract GST
GST mop-up likely to fall in May, June after touching record levels in April and March.
GST revenue for the month of June stood at Rs 92,849 crore, a 2 per cent increase over the same month a year ago, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday. The gross GST revenue collected in the month of June 2021 stands at Rs 92,849 crore of which central GST is Rs 16,424 crore, state GST Rs 20,397, Integrated GST Rs 49,079 crore (including Rs 25,762 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 6,949 crore (including Rs 809 crore collected on import of goods), the ministry said. The GST revenues for the month of June 2021 are 2 per cent higher than Rs 90,917 crore collected in June 2020.
Raghuram Rajan optimistic about passage of GST
