Once implemented, customers making payments using Rupay card or BHIM UPI will get a cashback of 20 per cent of the total GST amount, subject to a maximum of Rs 100.
The council also cut GST rates on affordable housing to 1 per cent from the current 8 per cent.
The Centre and states are likely to settle for this threshold.
According to the Minister, GST proposals would help in spurring growth and employment.
There is much work to be done to design a good GST.
As the new Tax Collection at Source (TCS) on foreign remittances is set to become applicable from October 1, travel agents' body TAAI has made a last-minute plea to the government, urging them to abolish the decision or defer its implementation until the next fiscal year to allow discussions on overseas tour packages. The government has raised the TCS on foreign remittances under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) from 5 per cent to 20 per cent. This will be applicable to international travel, sending money abroad and other remittances.
Confident of meeting the schedule of introducing the goods and service tax in the beginning of the next fiscal, state finance ministers will meet the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee around mid-June on various issues relating to the new tax system.
States should have enough time. We still do not know the rules. There are a lot of operational difficulties, says Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu.
Inter-state supply may come under GST composition
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 CAG has found that the Union government in the very first two years of the GST implementation wrongly retained Rs 47,272 crore of GST compensation cess that was meant to be used specifically to compensate states for loss of revenue.
The Budget should use the extra RBI surplus to better effect, suggests A K Bhattacharya.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's wish to levy indirect tax on petrol unlikely to be taken up
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.
Reform ideas do not occur overnight and evolve over the years.
In a string of tweets and replies, Swamy also said that GST can be implemented only if the Supreme Court clears a petition on levy of entry tax
'The private sector believes that some enablers in labour-intensive sectors like apparel, toys, tourism, and media retail, can unlock a lot of jobs.'
The government introduced the 122nd Constitution amendment Bill.
States are apprehensive of losing their rights to raise revenue during emergencies.
Simplifying the processes will lead to greater efficiencies. Bad processes will not help even if implemented well, says T N C Rajagopalan
The empowered committee on GST headed by West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta has agreed to a dual structure of the proposed indirect tax regime, which is likely to be introduced from April 2010. The new tax regime would do away with most of the indirect taxes levied at the Centre like excise and services tax, and VAT and Octroi at the State level.
It will also be new Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra's first GST Council meeting. He will take charge after the incumbent Tarun Bajaj retires on November 30.
Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi tells Ajit Jain about tax lessons he learned in Canada
GST will create a single, unified Indian market to make the economy stronger.
Ruptures in the opposition unity emerged barely a week after 17 parties joined hands to put up a joint candidate against the ruling National Democratic Alliance nominee for the July 17 presidential election.
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.
Government strategists are trying to ensure that the requisite 16 of the 31 states ratify the Bill by the end of this month
Cong leaders speak in two voices but final stand may be decided at a meeting headed by Rahul Gandhi next week
Manufacturing taxes, VAT will come down, assures Jaitley
Consensus seems a problem before the current session of Parliament ends.
The council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will meet again on December 11 and 12 to hammer out the differences.
Bihar became the first non-NDA state and overall second after the BJP-ruled Assam to pass GST bill.
All goods and services have been put in slabs of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%
Jaitley further said the country would eventually move to a two-tier GST, however, this depends on the revenue position of the government.
The Bills are primarily aimed at helping the MSME sector and small traders, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said while introducing these in the Lok Sabha
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.
Common items between Centre and states - bread, eggs, milk, vegetables, cereals, books and salt - will continue to be exempted.
With a view to keeping inflation under check, essential items including food, which presently constitute roughly half of the consumer inflation basket, will be taxed at zero rate.
Jaitley said the Congress may be upset with the government for 'political reasons'
Jaitley said the GST Composition Scheme, under which small traders and businesses pay a 1 per cent tax based on turnover, can be availed by businesses with a turnover of Rs 1.5 crore, against the earlier Rs 1 crore, with effect from April 1.
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