In its essence, GST is a national level system of value added taxation of goods and services, says Shankar Acharya.
The GST Council on Friday left taxes on COVID-19 vaccines and medical supplies unchanged after the BJP- and Opposition-ruled states sparred over whether tax cut benefits will reach the common man. Congress and other Opposition ruled states have been demanding a reduction in taxes but the central government felt the move may not result in tangible gains for people. "It is one thing to rush to say - do this, it will benefit the common man. But when the technical, fitment and law committees go into the details, you realise that that could have collateral impact on many others," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. "I am not talking about the revenue generation aspect, but how many other items will get included in it as a result of which how you are going to implement it," she added.
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.
The implementation of the GST will indeed be a landmark reform.
If the items and services such selected subsequently pass the test from the fitment committee and the GST Council, this would be the first of such rate hikes, after a series of cuts in the process of rate rationalisation that started in November 2017.
The Centre and states are looking to further tighten the GST registration process and legal measures to deal with the rising cases of fake invoicing. A meeting of the law committee of the GST Council has been convened on Wednesday to discuss these issues, finance ministry sources said. The committee, comprising senior central and state tax officers, would also discuss the GST fake invoice frauds, further tightening of the GST registration process and work out other legal measures including necessary law amendment required in the GST Act to curb the menace of fake invoicing, they added. Also the provisions related to deemed registration under Goods and Services Tax (GST) law may be tightened to prevent the misuse of such provisions by fake dealers and the provisions related to suspension of registration may also be streamlined to make the procedure of suspension and cancellation of registration more efficient and faster, so that such fraud operators can be prevented in time from continuing to pass on fake credit down the chain.
'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'
Goods like chocolates, chewing gum, shampoo, deodorant, shoe polish, detergents, nutrition drinks and marble will now attract 18% GST>
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said, a hike in GST rates would have hampered consumption amid the economic slowdown. The revenue augmentation panel in the Council meeting recently recommended revisiting and restructuring the GST rate slabs, besides correcting the inverted duty structure. The panel listed 24 items, including mobile phones, footwear, fabrics, LED light, medical equipment, utensils, agri machinery, pharma, and renewable components, which have an inverted duty structure, resulting in refunds of close to Rs 20,000 crore annually.
Modi said there were a slew of 'matching priorities' between the business council and that of his administration, including dismantling trade barriers, promoting skills development, establishing manufacturing supply chains and infrastructure development.
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 budgeted indirect tax collection target is Rs 9.26 trillion, and the Centre has collected around Rs 5 trillion in the first 8 months. So it needs another Rs 4.2 trn in the last four months
As per practice a vote-on-account or approval for essential government spending for a limited period is taken in the election year and a full-fledged budget presented by the new government.
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.
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.
After the GST Council's meeting in March, the Centre had sought views from Attorney General K K Venugopal -- who is the chief legal officer of the government -- on the legality of market borrowing by the council to make good any shortfall in the compensation fund. The AG in his view said there is no obligation on the central government to pay the GST compensation shortfall, according to the sources.
The UK India Business Council expects more emphasis to be put on improving bilateral economic ties.
This will violate the time-honoured convention that a government elected for a five-year tenure presents only five full Budgets, but the NDA government will no doubt present it as yet another initiative of Mr Modi.
The panel decided to omit the reverse charge mechanism (RCM) clause from the GST law under which registered taxpayers buying from unregistered taxpayers have to deposit the GST.
Higher reliance on GST receipts for revenue reduces states' autonomy as these receipts depend on tax rates decided by the GST Council, a report by Delhi-based non-profit, PRS Legislative Research shows.
Amid an outcry over record high petrol and diesel prices, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the Centre and state governments will have to together work out a mechanism to bring retail rates to reasonable levels.
The challenges before the government, he said, is to put public sector banks back on track and continue to operationalise stalled infrastructure projects
States will have exclusive control over all dealers up to a revenue threshold of Rs 1.5 crore in a year
The government introduced the 122nd Constitution amendment Bill.
"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.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the much-awaited 2022-23 Union Budget on February 1. While there has been strong recovery in some sectors, touch services like hospitality, tourism and leisure continue to suffer after two Covid-19 waves. Household savings have been hit due to increased spending on health care. Consumption has still not reached pre-pandemic levels.
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 theatres will start functioning from Friday with the ticket prices set to go up from the present maximum of Rs 120 with the addition of 28 per cent of Goods and Services Tax.
In the video, Bachchan explains GST as an unifying force just like the three colours in the national flag.
Consensus seems a problem before the current session of Parliament ends.
Neutrality and jurisdiction in international trade need to be discussed threadbare before GST is implemented in India.
Only luxury and 'sin' items could be left in highest slab. 12 and 18 per cent slabs could be merged in the future
As Centre cedes power to states in indirect tax, it wants to all ystaffers' worry of little work.
India is facing no risk of recession or stagflation as macroeconomic fundamentals of the economy are strong, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday. Replying to a debate on price rise in the Lok Sabha, she said the GST collection and Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) are indicating that the Indian economy is getting more robust. The GST collection rose 28 per cent to touch the second-highest level of Rs 1.49 lakh crore in July. GST, introduced in July 2017, touched a record high of Rs 1.68 lakh crore in April 2022.
The Lok Sabha has already passed the Bill.
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.
"Of the structural reforms, the GST has been the most historic in our country. Its chief architect is not with us today. I pay homage to the visionary leader late Arun Jaitely. GST has been gradually maturing into a tax that has integrated the country economically," she said during her budget speech.
A future road map could be to work towards a single standard rate instead of two standard rates of 12 per cent and 18 per cent, he said.
They've proposed a sub-committee under the proposed GST Council or the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers to resolve any disputes in the tax's implementation.
Fast-moving consumer goods companies have begun assessing the impact of the rate structure declared on Thursday under the goods and services tax.
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