GST revenue for the month of June stood at Rs 92,849 crore, a 2 per cent increase over the same month a year ago, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday. The gross GST revenue collected in the month of June 2021 stands at Rs 92,849 crore of which central GST is Rs 16,424 crore, state GST Rs 20,397, Integrated GST Rs 49,079 crore (including Rs 25,762 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 6,949 crore (including Rs 809 crore collected on import of goods), the ministry said. The GST revenues for the month of June 2021 are 2 per cent higher than Rs 90,917 crore collected in June 2020.
The time is ideal for a 'Dream Budget' akin to the 1991 reforms that sparked high growth and unlocked significant gains in productivity, points out Rajeswari Sengupta.
An ardent cricket fan told me he was 118,000th in the queue, and within minutes, he received the disappointing news that his hopes of securing a ticket had vanished with all tickets sold out.
The government intends to continue with the top GST slab of 28 per cent for luxury and sin goods, but is open to discuss narrowing down the three slabs of 5, 12 and 18 per cent into two, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said on Monday. Addressing the industry leaders, Bajaj said the rate rationalisation exercise of the GST Council is a result of introspection of GST, five years after its rollout, and the policymakers do not have a "fetish" to raise the tax rates to the revenue-neutral level of 15.5 per cent. On the industry demand for bringing petroleum products under GST net, he said since fuel constitutes a larger part of their revenues, both the Centre and states have some apprehension.
The government has decided to compensate states for any revenue loss on account of the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a move that will encourage states to go in for the new tax structure scheduled to be implemented from April 1, next year.
GST seeks to subsume many indirect taxes at the Central and state levels.
Sri Annapoorna Hotel on Saturday appealed to the people to put to rest unnecessary assumptions and political misunderstanding after a video of its owner apologising to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over his remarks on Goods and Services Tax (GST) went viral on September 13.
Following passage of the Constitution Bill, 2014, Dass and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who introduced it in the House, exchanged sweets.
Recent documents by NITI Aayog and periodic labour force surveys on employment show that the importance of agriculture is rising in the Indian economy.
Since its rollout 13 months ago, the new indirect tax has yielded Rs 1 trillion only in in April 2018
GST collections in March touched a record high of over Rs 1.23 lakh crore, a 27 per cent growth over the year-ago period, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday. "GST revenues crossed above Rs 1 lakh crore mark at a stretch for the last six months and a steep increasing trend over this period are clear indicators of rapid economic recovery post pandemic," the ministry said. Closer monitoring against fake-billing, deep data analytics using data from multiple sources including GST, income tax and customs IT systems and effective tax administration have also contributed to the steady increase in tax revenue over last few months, it added.
K M Mani was appointed the chairman of the panel in March this year.
The GST Council has set up a Group of Ministers, chaired by Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, to suggest required changes in the law for setting up the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT). The GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state ministers, had last week decided to constitute a Group of Ministers (GoM) to address various concerns raised by states in relation to constitution of the GSTAT. As per the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the GoM, the panel would recommend required amendments in the GST law to ensure that the legal provisions maintain the right federal balance and are in line with the overall objective of uniform taxation within the country.
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 compensation would be met through levy of a cess called 'GST Compensation Cess' on luxury items and sin goods like tobacco, for the first five years.
The GST Council on Tuesday approved changes in tax rates on some goods and services while allowing states to issue an e-way bill for intra-state movement of gold and precious stones, officials said. The Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state counterparts, also cleared a host of compliance procedures for GST-registered businesses along with a GoM report on high-risk tax payers to check evasion. The discussion on the crucial issues of extension of compensation to states beyond June 2022 and the imposition of 28 per cent GST on casinos, online gaming and horse racing, will take place on Wednesday.
The government is likely to provide a subsidy of Rs 35,000 crore to state-owned Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) to make up for losses they incurred on selling the fuel this fiscal, sources said.
Currently, domestic supplies and commercial imports of vaccines attract a 5 per cent Goods and Services Tax, while COVID drugs and oxygen concentrators attract a 12 per cent levy.
'We revolutionised the system in a manner so that the chances of leakage will be much lower than it was in the beginning.'
The GST bill's draft says tax would be levied on Maximum Retail Price
The 47th GST Council meeting that is currently underway is slated to discuss a host of issues, including a mechanism for compensating states for revenue loss, tax rate tweaks in some items and relaxed registration norms for small online suppliers. Further, the meeting of the Council, chaired by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state counterparts, will also clear levying the highest tax of 28 per cent on online games, casinos and horse racing, besides, measures to curb tax evasion, especially devising ways to tackle high-risk taxpayers in GST. "The meeting is being chaired by Hon'ble Union Minister of Finance @nsitharaman and many important decisions are expected to be taken at the meet," PIB Chandigarh tweeted.
Online skill-based gaming industry has made a case for retaining the service under 18 per cent GST slab instead of putting it into the highest 28 per cent tax rate category, saying the move will badly hit the $2.2-billion sector. The increase in taxation would not only have catastrophic impact on the industry but also encourage offshore operators who would circumvent Indian tax jurisdiction by hosting games in some other country, Games24x7 Co-CEO Trivikraman Thampy said. "It would be a triple whammy -- the industry loses out, the government loses out on tax revenue and players loses out as they would be exposed to unscrupulous operators," he said.
Even with the Rs 20,000 crore distributed among states, it will still be a fraction of what they have been demanding in financial support and clearance of pending dues.
Addressing the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee called for the inclusion of petroleum products in proposed goods and services tax so that sharp domestic price movements can be checked.
The government should bring natural gas under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for a gas-based economy and raising the share of the environment-friendly fuel in India's energy basket, an industry body that represents the likes of Reliance Industries as well as state-owned firms, has said. Natural gas is currently outside the ambit of GST, and existing legacy taxes -- central excise duty, state VAT, central sales tax -- continue to be applicable on the fuel. In its pre-Budget memorandum to the finance ministry, Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI), which boasts of members from across the oil and gas spectrum, also demanded rationalisation of GST on transportation of natural gas through pipeline as well as on re-gasification of imported LNG to help bring down cost of the environment friendly fuel.
The total revenue earned by central government and state governments after regular settlement in December was Rs 43,851 crore for CGST and Rs 46,252 crore for SGST.
GST is still some time away -- the Centre and the states are yet to decide on the rates, a draft law is not ready, the constitutional amendment is yet to happen -- but companies are already trying to figure out its impact, and getting ready for it.
This is a moment when the leaders at the Centre and states must show true leadership for the sake of the country. And it is the top political leaders, not attorney generals or bureaucrats, who should be sitting together and settling this thorny issue of compensation, says Arvind Subramanian, former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India.
President Droupadi Murmu addressed both Houses of Parliament, highlighting the government's achievements in various sectors, including economic growth, social welfare, and infrastructure development. She emphasized the government's efforts to lift the economy out of "policy paralysis" and create a more inclusive society. Murmu also acknowledged the challenges posed by digital fraud and cybercrime and stressed the need for a social infrastructure revolution. The President's speech is considered a policy statement, outlining the government's vision and roadmap for the future.
'From the tiniest to mid-level organisations and even some at the lower end of the large-scale ones would say that computerisation and the extensive documentation and regulatory requirements for GST have made the compliance process worse in many cases.'
The collections stood at Rs 98,202 crore in the month, against Rs 1.02 trillion in July. The figures indicate continuation of economic slow down which was reflected in the gross domestic product (GDP) growth which plummeted to a 25-quarter low of 5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019-20, experts said.
Kharge's remarks came after Modi on Friday said the Congress stands "badly exposed" in front of people for promising to them what the party knows it will never be able to deliver.
Sree Annapoorna Sree Gowri Shankar is a familiar name across the country. With over 1,500 employees, it is renowned for its filter coffee and Keerai Vada throughout Tamil Nadu. Its operating revenues range from Rs 100 crore to Rs 500 crore.
A key milestone towards indirect tax reform in the country was achieved on Wednesday when state governments approved the introduction of a nationwide dual Goods and Service Tax (GST) from April 1, 2010.
Supplying food to schools under mid-day meal scheme, pre-schools and anganwadis is exempt from GST, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has said. Issuing a set of clarification on certain decisions taken by the GST Council in its 43rd meeting on May 28, the CBIC said it had received representations regarding applicability of GST on the issues as to whether serving of food in schools under mid-day meals scheme would be exempt if such supplies are funded by government grants and/or corporate donations. Under the goods and services tax (GST), any catering service, including mid-day meals, provided to an educational institution is exempt from the levy.
The buoyancy in the tax revenue of GST reflects the upswing in the economy and better compliance
Proliferation of home chargers of around 7 KWh and above, which take six to seven hours to fully charge a car depending on the model, bring running costs down by a third or so. That, coupled with the increasing range of modern electric cars, can lead to a massive increase in sales.
About 99,165 electric cars were sold in India in 2024, but electric car penetration -- share of electric car sales in total sales -- was just about 2.5 per cent.
'If weak indicators persist, there is a risk that India could slip into a prolonged slowdown similar to the one experienced between 2014 and 2019,' warns Debashis Basu.
If other states follow suit, it is going to become difficult for the GST Council to decide on the next stage of reforms.