The disagreement between the Centre and states continued over administrative powers.
Modi on Friday invited the Congress leaders at his Race Course Road residence at 7 PM, sources said.
The transition to a single, nationwide tax on goods and services will streamline business and boost the economy by tearing down barriers between 31 states and union territories.
A slew of challenges that are yet to be resolved include the lack of consensus between the Centre and states over the GST exemption threshold limit, dual control over scrutiny and assessment
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.
We have only three differences with the Bharatiya Janata Party on the GST, said the Congress vice president.
Common items between Centre and states - bread, eggs, milk, vegetables, cereals, books and salt - will continue to be exempted.
'There was a strong undercurrent of deprivation, and also frustration against misuse of power and authority.' 'This election was an opportunity for the manifestation of this discontentment.'
The Finance Commission (task force) had recommended an overall GST rate of 12 per cent 'but it is likely to be higher than that', revenue secretary Sunil Mitra said at a Confederation of Indian Industry seminar in New Delhi.
GST Bill needs a two-thirds majority in each House.
With just eight days left for the winter session, Jaitley and Parliamentary Affairs Minster M Venkaiah Naidu held consultations with Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Deputy Leader Anand Sharma.
Uptick in growth projected in second half of current fiscal based on 10 factors including higher FDI flows, build up of demand pressure, positive GST revenue growth
GST is the biggest revenue shake-up since independence
The GST, an indirect tax regime, is to be rolled out from April 2016.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Gulam Nabi Azad approached leader of the house Arun Jaitley, saying that he is accompanying Sonia Gandhi to Varanasi on Tuesday.
The USIBC has encouraged a streamlined implementation of the GST.
The change in the peak rate will not alter the 4-slab rate structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent agreed upon last year, but is only a provision being built into the model law to take care of contingencies in future, two officials in the know told PTI.
Gains in auto shares helped offset losses in select index heavyweights led by Infosys.
The list of exempted goods from central excise duty has shrunk from 400 items in 2011-12 to 300 now.
On Tuesday, Bajaj Electricals extended its brand licence agreement with UK-based kitchen appliances major Morphy Richards, launching a new range of products. Chairman & managing director Shekhar Bajaj, cousin of industrialist Rahul Bajaj, tells Viveat Susan Pinto the company will increasingly focus its attention on its consumer products business.
Goods like chocolates, chewing gum, shampoo, deodorant, shoe polish, detergents, nutrition drinks and marble will now attract 18% GST>
The move will help address apprehensions as well as potential disputes on various computational and transitional issues such as the loss of input credits and pricing that were bound to arise on account of the change.
Shekhar Bajaj, chairman and managing director of the firm, explains to Viveat Susan Pinto on what led to this sales jump, besides throwing light on the benefits accruing to the sector on account of the GST rate cuts in appliances.
'The Budget numbers presented severely underestimate the magnitude of the unstated fiscal crisis that we went through in 2018-2019, which cannot be conceivably be fully reversed in 2019-2020,' points out Rathin Roy, director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
The Union government's fiscal deficit works out to be Rs 5.47 lakh crore or 36.3 per cent of the budget estimates at the end of October 2021 on the back of improvement in revenue collection, according to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Tuesday. The deficit figures in the current fiscal appear better than the previous financial year when the gap between expenditure and revenue had soared to 119.7 per cent of the last year's Budget Estimates (BE) mainly on account of a jump in expenditure to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit was Rs 5,47,026 crore at the end of October, the CGA said.
A decision in this regard will be taken by the empowered committee of state finance ministers in its meeting on December 20.
The government is hopeful of passage of the GST bill in the winter session of parliament claiming 30 of the 32 parties have supported it.
Supporters say the new sales tax will add up to two percentage points to India's economic growth
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is meeting state finance ministers on Thursday to garner support for the Constitution Amendment Bill for a goods & services tax (GST), is likely to immediately dole out about Rs 13,000 crore (Rs 130 billion) in Central Sales Tax (CST) compensation to states.
Panel formed to simplify return-filing process, take feedback from stakeholders, experts
The central government, in its revised draft of the constitution amendment bill, had proposed that fuel and liquor should be brought under the ambit of GST.
Agriculture implements that are currently taxed up to 18 per cent may come under the 12 per cent or the 5 per cent bracket.
The Goods and Services Tax Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in May.
India's tax pie seems to have undergone a subtle change with a sharp drop in direct tax collections resulting from a disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 carnage on incomes. The share of indirect taxes, which mainly comprise of levy on goods and services as well as import duty, has risen while that of direct taxes - made up of corporate and personal income tax - has gone down in 2020. In an interview with PTI, finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said in a pandemic like this where the economy has been impacted, any large scale changes impact direct taxes more severely, whereas indirect tax collection is mostly proportional to business turnover and compliance.
The government is keen to get the GST Bill approved during the Monsoon Session of Parliament ending on August 12.
From 0% to 28%, here's the breakup of what attracts how much GST.
'The only way to minimise logical inconsistencies and confusion is to develop the two rates of 12% and 18% as the ones that apply to almost all items.' 'At a later stage, these two rates could be merged into a single rate,' advises T N Ninan.
The government had set a budgetary target of over Rs 1.87 lakh crore for collection from customs duty in current fiscal
The Bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha.
India has allocated Rs 1.72 trillion, or 27.67 per cent of the total defence budget to cater to modernisation of the country's arsenal. Modern militaries spend up to 50 to 60 per cent of their total defence budget so that they go into combat with superior weaponry and equipment.
