Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation at the Central Hall of Parliament ahead of the GST launch at midnight. Here are highlights from the PM's speech
Fridge, washing machine, and paint makers are expected to cut prices shortly, while TV, aircon, and sanitary napkin makers are a disappointed lot
Reform ideas do not occur overnight and evolve over the years.
'The manufacturing sector and the capital goods industry need all the support that the government can provide, because they are working in a global market where trade restrictions are coming down every day,' says Amar Kaul.
Jaitley further said the country would eventually move to a two-tier GST, however, this depends on the revenue position of the government.
Appearing on Rediff Chat, G Srikanth, partner in GSV Associates, Chartered Accountants, Chennai, and member of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants, answered readers' queries on the Goods and Services Act.
India appears poised to sustain its growth in a more durable way than before with the economy carrying the momentum from FY23 into the current fiscal year, the Annual Economic Review for 2022-23 released by the finance ministry on Thursday said. However, the report cautioned that escalation of geopolitical stress, enhanced volatility in global financial systems, sharp price correction in global stock markets, a high magnitude of El-Nino impact, and modest trade activity and FDI inflows, are factors that could constrain the pace of growth. "Should these developments deepen and dampen growth in the subsequent quarters, the external sector may challenge India's growth outlook for FY24," the finance ministry said.
GST will lead to consolidation of multiple indirect taxes
The focus will be on tackling the unfinished agenda requiring immediate attention like tax structure for solar projects, uniform tax rate on state-organised and state-authorised lotteries, taxing non-potable alcohol besides certain changes in the law, extension for NAA and rate rationalisation.
The next meeting of the GST Council on January 16 would discuss the issue of jurisdiction over assessees as well as try to reach a finality on taxation of territorial waters
The Constitution should not encumber these choices, specially limiting them to second-best or third-grade options.
Construction costs would be reduced to some extent and this benefit can be passed on to the customers, thereby spurring home buying
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.
It will reduce compliance cost as the assessee will not have to maintain multiple records for a variety of taxes
GST implementation could happen in September itself, with the next meeting of the Union Cabinet likely to take up the matter.
The macro-economic situation has been brought under control: Godrej.
Claiming taxes collected from the south were being distributed to north India and that the former were not getting their due share, Congress MP D K Suresh on Thursday said the southern states will be forced to demand for a separate nation if the 'injustice' was not rectified.
The net direct tax collection so far this fiscal rose 19.41 per cent to Rs 14.70 lakh crore, reaching about 81 per cent of the full-year target, the income tax department said on Thursday. "The provisional figures of Direct Tax collections up to January 10, 2024, continue to register steady growth," the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement. Direct Tax collection, net of refunds, stood at Rs 14.70 lakh crore which is 19.41 per cent higher than the net collection for the corresponding period of last year.
'In practice, GST will increase the pain of compliance, if not the cost, a lot.' 'It also has clauses that offer scope to create a single market for corruption,' warns Devangshu Datta.
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.
Across 10 prominent services, revenue to the government reduced by 20 per cent in the first year of GST compared to the last year of the service tax regime. This happened despite tax liability against these services growing by 50 per cent in one year.
The mop-up could have been much higher, but tax on imports fell 2 per cent y-o-y.
The largest challenge for the gigantic exercise between the Centre and the 29 states was to keep the latter interested over the years.
Try to assess whether the broker has good knowledge of the prices prevailing in the area you are interested in, and is able to provide the pros and cons of various projects.
As many as 30 sub-groups and committees worked tirelessly to devise rules and laws as well as fix tax rates for over 1,200 goods and services.
Opposition politicians on Wednesday stalled a last minute attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to pass the Goods and Service Tax bill.
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.
What is to be done to resist the twin thrusts of the BJP's ideology, majoritarian and a strong centripetal instinct against federalism? asks Aakar Patel.
The GST bill is stuck in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA govt does not have a majority as well as stiff opposition by the Congress
Assuming we still have a Modi-led majority government after May 2024, there is no guarantee that reforms will move at anything more than a snail's pace, though we must be thankful even for that, notes R Jagannathan.
With all the brouhaha over GST, and (often) a limited understanding of the long-term forces shaping India's logistics sector, companies seem to have omitted factoring in some underlying trends that could shape supply chain excellence, says Neelesh Mundra.
Many consumer good companies say they will pass on the benefits to consumers, which will bring down prices.
The Centre's revenue from GST registered a decline of 10 per cent in 2017-18 compared to revenue of subsumed taxes in 2016-17.
The GST has been a great achievement, but it does suffer from weaknesses, says Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian.
'80% of the rural and urban population don't have enough purchasing power.'
Response to Rahul yatras in Gujarat forced GST cuts, says Congress. It reflects Modi's willingness to listen, says BJP.
'The low tax to GDP ratio of the country will go up, helping the government to adhere to fiscal discipline and keep inflation in check.'
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.
Roland Folger, managing director and chief executive officer at Mercedes Benz India calls the calendar year (CY) 2016 a year of 'lost opportunities' as NCR diesel ban and demonetisation led to a flat performance.
A final call will be taken by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday.
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