The forthcoming Budget, the last full one before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, is expected to contain a number of sops and feel-good announcements, especially regarding social sector schemes.
While demand for sub Rs 50-lakh affordable housing prevails, market players cite increased land rates, escalated construction costs and low margins as key prohibiting factors.
The central government wants to impose the levy; many states are opposed - at least, to the Centre doing so
The business would also not be allowed to claim any un-availed input tax credit for "goods lost" or "destroyed".
The government has notified a host of procedural changes in the GST rules, including levy of interest for wrongful utilisation of ITC and turnover threshold for filing annual returns for the 2021-22 fiscal. The changes were vetted by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council at its meeting last week. With the amendments notified by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), businesses have also been allowed to make tax payments on the GSTN portal by using IMPS and UPI payment modes.
BSE Auto index fell over 0.5% after reports that automobiles might get costlier post GST
Facing a deepening slowdown, the auto sector is pinning hopes on the GST Council meeting on September 20 for a rate cut from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. However, states including Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, and Punjab are of the view that the slowdown in the auto sector is not because of the GST rate but structural issues in the economy.
GSTN said those who do not want to give their Aadhaar numbers would have to undergo physical verification.
Heeding to demands made by several states, the GST Council on Friday put on hold a decision to hike the tax rate on textiles to 12 per cent and referred to a panel of state ministers to recommend rate by February, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. The panel, the highest decision-making body for indirect taxes, met under emergency provisions after states made a request for deferring the tax rate hike on textiles, from the current 5 per cent, to be effective from January 1, 2022. Currently, the tax rate on manmade fibre (MMF) is 18 per cent, MMF yarn 12 per cent, while fabrics are taxed at 5 per cent.
Singapore's single-rate GST structure cannot be India's model. But its practice of early announcement of rates much before their implementation should be emulated by India, says A K Bhattacharya.
The Centre on Thursday placed before the GST Council two options for borrowing by states to meet the shortfall in GST revenues, pegged at Rs 2.35 lakh crore in the current fiscal.
Introduction of GST would make Indian products competitive in the domestic and international markets.
The prime minister is aware that whatever be its consequences, a new taxation regime cannot be launched closer to the general elections in 2019. Thus, any date after April 2017 for the launch of GST is risky, says A K Bhattacharya.
Jaitley says govt is open to scrapping 1% additional tax on GST
The Congress, however, said it wanted to see the final print on the wording of the dispute resolution mechanism before committing its support to the Bill
'GST gives a huge relief to small businesses of India and West Bengal.'
GST is a landmark reform considering the sweeping changes it brings about in the indirect tax regime in India.
"At present, there are two main rate slabs under which sa majority of goods are covered -- five per cent and 12.5 per cent -- which will now increase to three (five per cent, 12 per cent and 18 per cent).Will this result in multiple litigations is anybody's guess."
From filing 37 returns a year when the Goods and Sales Tax was first introduced in July last year, the process has undergone major changes as the GST Council considered and implemented various models to ease the pain for assessees. Here's a recap of how the process has changed in 10 months.
The GST will alter the very face of fiscal federalism in India.
All goods and services have been put in slabs of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%
Bihar became the first non-NDA state and overall second after the BJP-ruled Assam to pass GST bill.
With less than five months left for the report of the Fifteenth Finance Commission to be submitted, its chairman N K Singh said the report will have fiscal road map for states, depending on their current situation.
Although the markets could see a knee-jerk reaction, they rule out a sharp fall.
The passage of the bill will pave the way for setting up of a GST council that will decide the tax rate, cess and surcharges.
Rahul Gandhi, who is scheduled to again visit poll-bound Gujarat from Saturday, said the government can't break the back of small and medium businesses, crush the informal sector and destroy millions of jobs.
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.
Parliament on Thursday cleared the decks for the rollout of the historic Goods and Services Tax from July 1 as it approved four supporting legislations to usher in the one-nation-one-tax regime.
The GST Bill, seen as single biggest tax reform in a long time, needs to be ratified by at least 15 state legislatures before the President can notify the GST Council which will decide the new tax rate and other issues
In an attempt to get states to implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST) by next April, the Centre has softened its stance on most proposals in the draft Constitutional Amendment Bill that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee hopes to pilot in the monsoon session.
The price of ensuring no disruption after rolling out the GST seems to be an imperfect GST with many relaxations in its compliance norms, says A K Bhattacharya.
The Centre is likely to introduce the Central GST and integrated GST bills in late November or early December in the ongoing session in the form of money Bills.
Experts said the rate hike would improve working capital position of the manufactures as it would correct the inverted duty structure but may lead to increase in price of the finished goods.
The cess collected on cars as also tobacco and coal will be used to compensate the revenue loss of states by implementing GST.
"This rationalisation is 3-4 month exercise," he said, adding that the GST Council decided on the rate cut on the recommendation of a Fitment Committee.
Following passage of the Constitution Bill, 2014, Dass and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who introduced it in the House, exchanged sweets.
The Constitution should not encumber these choices, specially limiting them to second-best or third-grade options.
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
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
'We revolutionised the system in a manner so that the chances of leakage will be much lower than it was in the beginning.'
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