Despite being cleared in the lower house, the GST bill has been pending in the Rajya Sabha for clearance, where the Congress enjoys numerical strength, reports Kavita Chowdhury.
Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma succeed in convincing Rahul Gandhi of zero returns in blocking Parliament.
The finance minister said the government was open to suggestions.
The revamped Special Economic Zone (SEZ) law is unlikely to see the light of the day before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, two people aware of the matter said. The commerce department had sought the Union Cabinet's nod to bring amendments to the existing SEZ Act, 2005 late last year. The plan, thereafter, was to introduce the Bill in the winter session of Parliament. Cabinet's approval remains pending.
Following passage of the Constitution Bill, 2014, Dass and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who introduced it in the House, exchanged sweets.
Mihir Tanna, Associate Director, S K Patodia & Associates, answers your tax queries.
Indian charitable trusts, including Tata Trusts and top corporate donors, are stumped by a new tax law proposed in the Budget, which reduces tax breaks for the donor organisations. The Finance Bill proposes that if a charitable organisation donates to another charity, then only 85 per cent of the donation will be considered as application of income for the donor organisation. Trust officials say this is a major setback for the donor organisations, including corporate foundations and intermediary organisations, which work with various implementing agencies at the grassroots level.
He, however, acknowledged that manufacturing states will suffer losses but said they will be compensated
'Sin tax' is a globally prevalent practice under which products like alcohol and tobacco attract higher rates of tax.
Abolition of CST will pave the way for an integrated Goods and Services Tax (GST) which will be introduced by April 1, 2010, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.
The Budget session of Parliament is set to start on a stormy note on Tuesday with issues like the Jawaharlal Nehru University row, Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide and Pathankot terror strike set to dominate the proceedings.
India's Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection surged to Rs 1.30 lakh crore in October, the second highest since its implementation in July 2017, indicating economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and impact of festive demand, a finance ministry statement said on Monday. The highest GST collection of Rs 1.41 lakh crore was recorded in April 2021. This is the fourth time in a row when the GST collection was upwards of Rs 1 lakh crore. The collection from GST was Rs 1.17 lakh crore in September, 2021.
Agra has long been known for the Taj Mahal, but it is also a manufacturing hub filled with micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that make everything from electronic components to metal products, from paints and chemicals to footwear. And five years after the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the MSMEs here complain that while the indirect tax regime has been transformative, cutting out the need to file multiple taxes, its biggest drawback has been the delay in credit refunds. Whoever you speak to - MSME owners, tax lawyers, or industry bodies like the National Chambers of Industries and Commerce (NCIC), Agra Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Chamber (AFMEC) and Agra Shoe Manufacturers Association (ASMA) - they all emphasise that the GST continues to face some key challenges.
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
Passage of the long-pending Goods and Services Tax bill and a unanimous resolution on Kashmir were the highlights of the "highly productive" Monsoon session of Parliament which was adjourned sine die on Friday after 20 sittings.
The government banks on the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party to push the Insurance and LIC Bills in the next Parliament session, but it seems to have adopted different tactics on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.
The markets will be eyeing the amendments.
Offering an olive branch to the Opposition to get the GST bill passed, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is willing to speak to everyone to get the landmark indirect tax law through.
The collections from Goods and Services Tax (GST) grew by 15 per cent to over Rs 1.49 lakh crore in December 2022, indicating improved manufacturing output and consumption demand, besides better compliance. This is the 10th month in a row that the revenues have remained above the Rs 1.4 lakh crore mark. The collection in November was about Rs 1.46 lakh crore. "The gross GST revenue collected during December 2022 is Rs 1,49,507 crore, of which CGST is Rs 26,711 crore, SGST is Rs 33,357 crore, IGST is Rs 78,434 crore (including Rs 40,263 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 11,005 crore (including Rs 850 crore collected on import of goods)," the ministry said in a statement.
GST collection grew by 12 per cent in April to Rs 1.87 lakh crore, the highest monthly mop-up since the rollout of the indirect tax regime. The gross GST revenue collected in the month of April 2023 is Rs 1,87,035 crore of which CGST is Rs 38,440 crore, SGST is Rs 47,412 crore, IGST is Rs 89,158 crore (including Rs 34,972 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 12,025 crore, the finance ministry said in a statement. The previous high collection of Rs 1.68 lakh crore was in April last year.
Passengers in 200 railway stations across India will soon be able to recharge their mobiles, pay electricity bills, fill up Aadhaar and Pan card forms and even file taxes with help from Common Service Centre (CSC) kiosks to be set up by RailTel. The scheme has been operationalised in partnership with CSC e-Governance Services India Limited' (CSC-SPV) and the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, RailTel said in a statement. The kiosks will be run by village level entrepreneurs (VLEs).
"Reaching an international agreement on how large digital companies are taxed has been a priority for the chancellor since he took office," said a spokesperson for his UK treasury office. "The chancellor's consistent position has been that it matters where tax is paid, and any agreement must ensure digital businesses pay tax in the UK that reflects their economic activities. That is what our taxpayers would expect and is the right thing," the spokesperson said.
The list of exempted goods from central excise duty has shrunk from 400 items in 2011-12 to 300 now.
Gandhi added that the nation's power has always come from the strength of ideas.
The finance minister continues to be backed by the same policy team in charting out the broad strategy as in the few earlier Budgets.
Lok Sabha passed the Finance Bill, after approving more than two dozen official amendments, by voice vote, thus completing the Budgetary exercise for 2019-20 in the Lower House.
The Direct Taxes Code bill was introduced in Lok Sabha in 2010 and Standing Committee on Finance has given a report after its scrutiny.
Congress is opposing the GST bill in the current form.
The finance minister said the consensus between the Centre and states is required to amendment the constitution for implementing goods and services tax.
The GST will alter the very face of fiscal federalism in India.
Analysts believe the GST could boost India's economic growth by up to 2 percentage points
New Delhi is witnessing a spurt of political activity over the Goods and Services Tax Bill.
"Trump failed our country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump is a chaos agent who is focused on himself, not the American people. Trump tried to destroy our democracy by lying about the election and inciting a violent mob to attack the Capitol," he said.
The Council also discussed process to make return filing simpler with just one return to be filed every month.
GST collections in June witnessed a 56 per cent year-on-year increase to over Rs 1.44 lakh crore on economic recovery and better anti-evasion measures, the finance ministry said on Friday. Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections in June, 2021 stood at Rs 92,800 crore. Speaking at the GST Day celebrations, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Rs 1.4 lakh crore is the "rough bottom line" for monthly GST revenue collections.
While the government has the option of ensuring the passage of these Bills as money Bills, there are voices within the government advising discretion on the GST roll-out by April 1.
'Appellants may not lap up the scheme because, first, to do so would amount to admission of guilt, and second, they may have smelled victory before higher appellate forums,' notes S Murlidharan.
On the macroeconomic data front, PMI data on manufacturing and services sector will also influence trading
A continued focus on low inflation will be important to keeping gold imports, IMF said.
Enthused by the consensus in reaching four-tiered GST tax structure, particularly the unanimity achieved with Congress-ruled states, senior government sources were confident that the Central GST and Integrated GST Bills will be passed by both the Houses.