Hospitality players want the government to accord infrastructure status to hotels to make investments on new properties more attractive rather than categorising them as luxury or even 'sin goods' in the upcoming Union Budget considering the sector's potential to play a key role in India's growth. They also want the government to consider incentives in the form of tax breaks or subsidies for adopting sustainable and eco-friendly practices, while asserting that the upcoming budget must accelerate the tourism agenda saying it is an opportunity to make Indian hospitality the emerging engine for GDP growth and employment generation.
Reaching a consensus might also get tougher, as already seen with issues like inclusion of natural gas in GST and imposition of a sugar cess, both central proposals being resisted.
'During times of adversity, a brick becomes better than a stone. That is how I look at the election season.'
To improve compliance, govt may introduce lottery reward for filing GST. The Consumer Welfare Fund, where anti-profiteering proceeds are deposited, will be used to reward the lucky winners on monthly and annual bases. The prize money, yet to be fixed, may run into several lakhs of rupees for the annual draw, and about Rs 50,000 for monthly draws.
Retaining the GST rate assumes importance since states are under pressure to increase their revenues, hit hard by lockdown. Also, the Centre has not fully compensated states for their revenue losses on account of GST for 2019-20.
Preparing legal framework to protect states from revenue loss.
The GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising representatives of all states and Union territories, will have its 37th meeting in Goa against the backdrop of economic growth hitting a six-year low of 5 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal.
The CBIC has come out with guidelines on blocking of tax credit by GST field officers, saying that such blocking should be on the basis of 'material evidence' and not just out of 'suspicion'. The guidelines laid down five specific circumstances in which such credit could be blocked by a senior tax officer. These include availment of credit without any invoice or any valid document, or availing of credit by purchasers on invoices on which GST has not been paid by sellers.
GST rate for petrol and diesel cars and hybrid vehicles is already at the highest bracket of 28 per cent plus cess.
Amidst a severe water crisis, the Karnataka Water Supply and Sewerage Board banned the usage of drinking water for car washing, gardening, construction, water fountains and road construction and maintenance. It also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000, if the order is violated.
The finance minister continues to be backed by the same policy team in charting out the broad strategy as in the few earlier Budgets.
The new form will only require a complainant to mention the product and GST identification number of the seller
'Just today a shopkeeper I went to was saying how bad business is. He must have been a BJP supporter.' 'He finally said, "It's a good thing there's an NDA government, not a BJP government, 'they' had become too big for their boots,".'
Steep taxes on petrol and diesel add to the cost of economic activity and reduce the Indian economy's competitiveness. The two fuels must be brought under GST's purview, suggests former IAS officer Ajay Shankar.
Hasmukh Adhia to present revenue dept's performance over past year & plan for current financial year
A road map could be laid out for a gradual reduction in the tax rates from the current incidence of about 62-94 per cent without causing a major blow to the revenues of the Centre and the states. The opportunity arising out of higher GST collections should not be squandered, says A K Bhattacharya.
A strong proponent of the GST, Adi Godrej has been saying for five years or more that it will add one per cent to India's gross domestic product (GDP).
Bihar became the first non-NDA state and overall second after the BJP-ruled Assam to pass GST bill.
The council also cut GST rates on affordable housing to 1 per cent from the current 8 per cent.
The revised structure will help to keep airfares down, when airlines already face a triple challenge of rising crude oil prices, rupee depreciation and constrained airport capacity.
After the 2019 election, one thing is sure: GST will see a number of changes, explains Indivjal Dhasmana.
Restricting the input credit is not a good idea for any sector, particularly real estate which requires more formalisation.
Hybrids have helped Maruti acquire leadership in SUVs, a segment that was never its forte. Toyota has also risen with the hybrid tide to clock its highest-ever annual sales in 2023.
R Vignesh is a member of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of India in Chennai, appeared on Rediff Chat to answer readers' queries on GST.
Private sector lender Bandhan Bank on Friday said its founder, managing director and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh has tendered his resignation. Ghosh would retire from the services of the bank as MD and CEO upon completion of his current tenure on July 9, 2024, the bank said in a regulatory filing. "After leading the bank for almost a decade, including three consecutive tenures as MD & CEO, I feel that the time has now come for me to assume a larger strategic role at Bandhan group level," Ghosh said in a letter addressed to the board.
He died at AIIMS in New Delhi at 9.45 pm, hospital sources said.
'Because of the COVID-19 pandemic situation today, the revenues of the states have gone down, the GST money is not coming and all the states combined have lost more than Rs 365,000 crore in revenue.' 'To make it worse, the Government of India is not compensating us for the shortfall, which it must as per its Constitutional obligations.'
If the concerns over risking political capital are overcome, the long-term gains for the Indian economy will be immense, asserts A K Bhattacharya.
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.
'While the GST is structured to be an all-encompassing tax and to create a vastly expanded digital network of recorded transactions, no one knows how traders long used to avoiding taxes will apply their ingenuity,' says T N Ninan.
The very design of the GST will bring in revenue buoyancy.
'It is necessary to have a person at the top who can make strict decisions without hesitation. Modiji has done that.'
Although the markets could see a knee-jerk reaction, they rule out a sharp fall.
The GST's significance for the BJP's politics is as important as its implications for the Indian economy, says A K Bhattacharya.
GST collections in March slipped below the psychological Rs 1 lakh crore-mark for the first time in four months to Rs 97,597 crore as the Covid-19 lockdown that shut most businesses compounded tax collection woes in an already sluggish economy. Goods and Services Tax (GST) mop-up in March recorded a 8.4 per cent decline over March 2019 collection of Rs 1.06 lakh crore. The collections were lower on account of dip in revenues from domestic transactions as well as imports.
'The Opposition will continue to be attacked through misuse of agencies, civil society will be force-marched towards extinction and India's plummeting on global indices will continue.' 'Minorities and especially Muslims will continue to have open season declared on them. Institutions will continue their decline,' predicts Aakar Patel.
Experts said this will mean that companies, which have offices in multiple states, will have to raise Goods and Services Tax invoice for functions performed by employees in head office that has helped branches in other states.
The CAG audit and other data suggests it could be far from the efficient new alternative that was once conceptualised. A conclusive review remains elusive till the government begins to release more granular and comparable data on the complex backend of GST to a deeper scrutiny, by researchers, auditors and the public.
The central government's fiscal deficit during 2023-24 at 5.6 per cent of the GDP was better than previous estimates of 5.8 per cent on account of higher revenue realisation and lower expenditure, according to official data released on Friday. In actual terms, the fiscal deficit -- or gap between expenditure and revenue -- was Rs 16.53 lakh crore, or 5.63 per cent of the GDP, which grew 8.2 per cent in 2023-24.
The central government wants to impose the levy; many states are opposed - at least, to the Centre doing so
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