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]

GST Council’s next meeting on 16th January will play a very pivotal role in framing FM’s budget speech. India will have to implement GST on or before September 15, 2017

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Current threshold under service tax law for exemption is likely to raised from ₹ 10 lacs to ₹ 25 lacs. Increasing the cap will suit startups and other small scale ventures to stay out of service tax net. It also eases compliance and administrative hassles some bit for them. A government official said.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Goods and Services Tax will usher in a very simple and less burdensome taxation regime as it will be a single rate indirect tax which can be paid by debit/credit cards, cheque and NEFT, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said today.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The GST Council has already reached a consensus on a 4-tier tax structure i.e. 5,12,18 and 28 per cent. Besides, a cess on demerit, luxury and some more goods would also be levied.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

“GST will indeed become a very simple and less burdensome tax for most of the people of the country. Be it manufacturers or traders. Simple tax, single compliance procedure, it will become very very simple for the people to pay taxes,” Adhia said.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

GST taxes can be paid by way of NEFT, RTGS, cheque, and debit/credit cards etc.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

“GST is a very very simple thing to follow, it is going to be very easy for all of you. There will not be any border restriction when you move goods from one state to another. And many of the small small taxes will go away. It will be one unified tax,” Adhia said at the Vibrant Gujarat global Summit here.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Vijay Prakash Kumar, CEO of GST Network, says, "We have already rolled out one of the modules, which is registration, and using that more than 28 lakh people have already enrolled as tax payers and remaining hopefully will be doing it this month by January 31.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The government owns 49 per cent in it, with the central and state governments owning 24.5 per cent each, while 51 per cent is controlled by private companies, including HDFC, ICICI Bank among others. Some of these private entities are controlled by foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Nagesh Rao, nodal officer and Joint Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, VAT Division, Mysuru, said the window for registration for migration in Karnataka is January 1 to 15. This would ease the process of registration as there is a dedicated line and bandwidth, which would ensure that the process was completed within 15 minutes to 30 minutes.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

CBEC has also asked its field offices to launch awareness campaign and outreach programmes to facilitate migration of all excise and service taxpayers to the GST network by January-end.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The provisional registration, which will be generated on the basis of PAN, will be called Goods and Services Tax Identification Number (GSTIN).

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The Rajasthan state government will incorporate the provisions of Goods and Service Tax (GST) in the budget even if its implementation is delayed by the Centre beyond April.

The budget will have separate heads under GST and well-laid guidelines of tax distribution. Sources claim the budget will be presented like every year in the same format but with additional features.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

“Companies will now start locating manufacturing plants on the basis of economic sense instead of choosing areas where the taxes are lowest. Companies would need to rework their strategies because there would be little to gain in terms of tax holidays. CII President Naushad Forbes said.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Companies, domestic or multinationals, have been choosing small hill towns and remote parts of the country to take advantage of no-tax or low-tax regimes. The advantage will cease because as the GST model law reads today, the tax holiday would not be extended after September 16 when GST comes into force.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

GST regime is slated to subsume state levies like VAT or CST. Under GST, the taxes would be collected by a state where the goods are sold and not where the goods are manufactured.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

“The Budget session will conclude by the first week of February. It may not be possible for the government to introduce the GST Bill in the Budget session of the Legislature as the high-powered committee is yet to draft the legislation,” said the J&K state government’s Economic Survey report.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

GST Council has reached a consensus on the issue of 'dual control ', which was seen as the last major roadblock for GST implementation.

Turnover of less than ₹ 1.5 crores - 90% of business would be administered by States, and the balance 10% by Central Government.

Turnover of more than ₹ 1.5 crores- Such businesses would be divided in the ratio of 50:50 between Central Government and the States.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

GST is now expected to be rolled out by 1st July 2017, as opposed to the earlier date of 1st April 2017.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Addressing media post conclusion of ninth GST Council meeting, FM Arun Jaitley has said that the new deadline for GST rollout is July 1.

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.