The empowered committee of state finance ministers is firm on sticking to the April 1 deadline for switching over to Value Added Tax despite the "friction" coming in the way from traders and a handful of states.
With only West Bengal sending in the draft amendments to Value-added Tax Bill, the finance ministry said on Thursday that a new roadmap will be drawn up for the implementation of the progressive tax regime, which was to be effective from June 1.
Implementation of the VAT regime, strongly favoured by the Kelkar committee on tax reforms, has been hanging fire since April this year.
Only eight out of 16 states, which have agreed to implement Value-Added Tax from June 1, have passed legislations on the issue so far, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said in Lok Sabha on Friday.
With states agreeing to implement value-added tax from April, government on Monday pegged two rates of 10 and 12.5 per cent, while assuring full compensation for any revenue loss in the first year.
In layman terms this means that in cases where buyers purchase houses before completion of construction, builders would be levied works contract tax on the building material.
In an attempt to bring uniformity in prices of medicines, Chemicals Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Wednesday asked the states to exempt them from local taxes or at least advance the implementation of value-added tax regime for drugs.
With less than a year left for the scheduled introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), most states have increased their VAT (value-added tax) rates. The move is seen as an attempt to extract better compensation from the Centre for loss on account of GST rollout
The empowered committee on value-added tax will meet the finance minister in mid-July to discuss the 'roadmap' for the introduction of the new tax regime, after which it will be taken up with political parties for a national consensus.
At least 11 states accounting for two-third of the country's trade and industrial output are ready to introduce value-added tax from June
Kabir was seen clinging to the tricolour-wrapped coffin of his father. He bowed before his father's body just before cremation.
The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers has been asked to sort out some of the contentious issues on the value-added tax including the refunds on credit and exemption for exports.
Six more states are set to join the value added tax regime from April
Jet fuel or ATF price on Tuesday was hiked by a steep 8.5 per cent - the second increase in a month, while commercial cooking gas rate was cut by Rs 100 per cylinder in line with divergent trends in international benchmarks. Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price was increased by 7,728.38 per kilolitre, or 8.5 per cent, in the national capital to Rs 98,508.26 per kl, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Rates, which vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT, have been increased on firming up of global rates that followed four months of decline.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh will soon convene a meeting of state chief ministers to work out details for implementation of the much-delayed value added tax in the country.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Friday hinted that value added tax might not take off as scheduled in June as not all states have agreed to its implementation.
Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of tax cuts on petroleum products, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday said people were aware of the fact behind the issue and pointed out at his government effecting a Rs 3 a litre cut on petrol earlier.
Six years after the rollout of the biggest indirect tax reform in India, Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue of Rs 1.5 lakh crore every month has become a new normal and tax officers are focusing on dealing with fraudsters who are adopting newer modus operandi to game the system, causing loss to the exchequer. To apprehend black sheep, who operate as syndicates and create fake entities on the basis of forged documents to claim input tax credit (ITC), tax officers have started using data analytics, artifical intelligence and machine learning aiming to curb evasion, which was over Rs 3 lakh crore since inception of GST. It was over Rs 1 lakh crore in 2022-23. Thinktank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said the most critical pending GST reform is upgradation of GST Network to prevent fake supplies and fraudulent claims of Input Tax Credit (ITC).
It should have been much easier to find this farsan maker's premises given the number of two-wheelers that stream up to this address the day before Ganesh Chaturthi to collect armfuls of bags of laddus, chuda and other kind of chatpata namkeen stuff.
Maharashtra is likely to incur a revenue loss of Rs 1,500-2,000 crore (Rs 15-20 billion) in the current fiscal due to implementation of value added tax.
If 4,000 workers could work round the clock for the construction of the new Parliament building, then there is no reason why all infrastructure projects too cannot follow that model, asserts Dr Sudhir Bisht.
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After premium petrol, the price of normal petrol has also crossed Rs 100 per litre in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar district.
Gehlot later told reporters that the Congress high-command will decide on the reshuffle and AICC general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan Ajay Maken has all the information about it.
Monkeys are a constant presence and a menace in what is called Lutyens' Delhi, around government offices and even around the Sanctuary of Indian Democracy.
'Government shouldn't be in the business of running airlines, instead it should develop the ecosystem of civil aviation.'
CNG price in the national capital on Friday was hiked by 80 paise per kg, while piped cooking gas rates were increased by a steep Rs 5 per cubic metre on the back of the government raising input natural gas prices to record levels. CNG price in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi has been increased to Rs 60.81 per kg from Rs 60.01, according to information posted on the website of Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) -- the firm which retails CNG and piped cooking gas in the national capital. This is the sixth increase in CNG prices in the last month.
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