Goods and GST Bill passed

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Dear All,

GST Bill is passed in Rajya Sabha on 03. 08.2016.

A panel under chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian has recommended a revenue-neutral rate of 15-15.5%, with a standard rate of 17-18% be levied on most goods and all services.

But, there has been no agreement yet on rates of various goods and services, which remains a tricky issue. According to the Bill, passed in the Lok Sabha in May 2015, the rates were to be decided by a GST council headed by the central finance minister with state finance ministers as members.

Let us wait.

Thanks.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Union Finance Minister says, GST Council is deliberating on ways to reduce the taxation process, including assessment by tax officials.

"Today, each person gets assessed thrice, in each of the three taxations (including VAT and central excise). Now, you will only be assessed once and what one authority assesses, others will have to accept that assessment," he said.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Whether GST will be implemented w.e.f. 01.04.2016 or by September 2016, the companies / assesses need to be prepared to welcome the change . All information technology related readiness and business strategy need to have been done . Most of the companies are doing the impact analysis of GST on their business . It is good that Government has also initiated the provisional registration process well advance leaving to space for last minute rush. Assesses have strated discussing their business by relating that if GST comes into effect what will be their impact .

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

GST is a game changer. It subsumes various indirect taxes both levied by States as well as Central Government . The dealers were to deal with various department like Sales tax, Excise, Octroi etc. which was tedious job. Liasioning with Government department , no doubt, consumes time but also gives stress and tension . The assessment procedure is lengthy . Also appointing an Consultant to take care all these cases with different authority is costly . Now With the implementation of GST , the liasioning part will diminish . The consultant is many under present tax regime i.e. separate consultant for each kind of taxes. Now atleast in GST one Consultant called GST consultant is expected .

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

GST is going to boost employment . Since the number of returns required to be filed under GST is so many a dedicated staff in an organisation is a must . Atleast in a company where transaction are numerous . The input tax credit matching task would become a continuous task and there is going to be a huge data uploaded into GSTN and mismatch is ought to happen . Overall there is really a need for deducted staff for gst in a big company .

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Return for outward supply is required to be filed by 10th and inward supply by 15th and return to be filed with combined detail by 20th. Also there would be ISD return to be filed and Wct return as well. Thus, a dedicated staff to look after these compliances is required.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

With GST every tax consultant and experts are now on sale line . This is a good start for all the tax aspirants . Taxation is a good area to expertise on .

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Some are expressing that they thought that there would be a single tax rate , say 18%. The same could have brought all types of assesses on the same line . But after learning that there are 4 tier tax rates the purpose of GST seems defeated . Now it can be said that old system of having various rate and item schedule kept same under GST . What is new in this ? .

This thought of few are correct but they need to rest assure that alteast by subming various tax seamless credit is allowed which in long run would reduce the tax rates. Something is better than nothing . Some change is better than no change.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

One of the requirement that need to be taken care is accounting syatem. Most of the big companies are having SAP for accounting purpose. The same need to be configured according to the GST requirement . The invoice wise details need to be uploaded in the GST Network. Such details should be able to get from SAP . Though there is no interface between SAP and GSTN , SAP will provide the data that would be compatible to upload in the network at ease. Thus this area is also in the to to list for companies who are working to be prepared for upcoming GST .

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Companies with minimum transaction may not go for higher version accounting software. with lesser data the compliance is managible .

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

As regard learning GST, conferences are also organised.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is set to miss the April 1, 2017 deadline. It looks increasingly improbable that the three GST enabling Bills -- the Central GST, Integrated GST and State GST -- could be passed in the remainder of the ongoing winter session of Parliament, which concludes on December 16.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

On the chances of reduction in GST rates in future, CBEC chief explained that Centre and States at present collect ₹ 8 lakh crore from Indirect taxes, minus customs duty, and the same level of revenue has to be collected in the GST regime. Once we see how much money is collected from these taxes, we can certainly look at the rates.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Recently GST Council decided on having a four tier rate structure under GST in India. It sparked a debate on possibility of having a one tax rate structure. CBEC Chief Najib Shah says that "How can you possibly have one rate for edible oil and car or for atta and computers. We cannot have one rate. We have to have multiple rates."

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Zero-rated supply refers to items that are taxable, but the rate of tax is Nil on their supplies and input tax relating to them can be availed. Exports would be zero-rated.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

"Each organisation is estimated to process 50,000 to seven lakh invoices a month. With HANA as the database, our solutions will specifically be able to cater to each and every size and segment of the businesses that we support today," says Arun Subramanian, vice president, globalisation services, SAP India

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The PM said in the Parliament said, "The kacha bill and pakka bill system in our country has helped mobilize back money. GST will help put an end to this."

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

CII Director-General Chandrajit Banerjee has said : "The GST should begin with an absolute limit of four rates as suggested by the Government, and over time, government should commit to converging these four rates to one or two rates."

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Tax experts said the April,1 GST rollout deadline will be missed. "It's unfortunate that there was not much headway in the Council meeting. The only silver lining was that substantial progress seems to have been made on discussions with respect to laws and broad consensus was reached for provisions up to Chapter 20 (out of total 27 chapters)," said Pratik Jain, partner and leader indirect tax, at consultancy firm PwC.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The government was keen to introduce the GST bills in the winter session of Parliament but now it appears that the legislations may be placed in the budget session which starts in January.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

FM says, " The luxury of time is not available to us because 1st April is the first possible day for GST implementation and if that does not happen then the last date constitutionally defined is 16th of September 2017. So the discretion as to when to implement GST is only five months and 16 days and that's why we don't have the luxury of time."

AI Summary

Goods and Services Tax consolidation creates a dual GST framework with GST Council oversight and a shared IT platform for compliance.
Goods and Services Tax establishes a destination based, dual tax framework subsuming central and state indirect levies, administered through a GST Council and implemented via a shared IT platform (GSTN). The model law sets out registration and return regimes, HSN/SAC classification by turnover bands, input tax credit carry forward, composition and reverse charge rules, refund and valuation procedures, compensation to states during transition, and institutional arrangements for cross empowerment, adjudication and dispute resolution.