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]

The Union Cabinet has cleared amendments in the Customs and Excise Act relating to abolition of cesses and surcharges on various goods and services to facilitate implementation of GST.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

16 cesses and surcharges on union excise and service tax will get abolished as a pre-cursor to rolling out Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

“Amendments or repeal of various provisions of other Acts which will no longer be relevant consequent on rollout of GST will result in cleansing of the irrelevant portions from the Statute Book and reduce multiplicity of taxes,” an official release said after the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

It also approved repeal of the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 and amendment or repeal of the provisions relating to Acts under which cesses are levied.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

In addition, new clauses are proposed to be incorporated in the Customs Act to provide for furnishing of information on import and export of goods to detect under or over-valuation and misuse of export promotion schemes.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Existing tax payers are required to enroll on GST portal for registration migration under GST. For the first time login, you need to provide username and password that you received from the State VAT/Centre Tax Department. This username is a provisional ID.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Times where government is leaving no stone un-turned to roll out Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1, 2017 there are doubts for preparedness of India Inc. and especially in case of SMEs.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

As per the latest government data only 11.22% of taxpayers who are registered under Service Tax Act but not registered under State VAT have migrated to GST. While it appears that tax payers are delaying to migrate, the other side of coin is that GSTN has not been able to provide provisional ID and password (required for migration to GST) in all cases.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Migration is the foremost step that a tax payer needs to undertake in order to move to GST regime. Migrating to GST does not in any way just mean conversion of registration or change in name of tax, it entails change in IT systems, processes, supply chain, invoicing, compliance etc.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

89% (Approx) of registrants have not migrated, to GST.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Looks like prospective car buyers are going to have to consider more factors than just make and model or gas mileage before investing in a car once the Goods and Services Tax is implemented this year.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Automobiles in India are taxed under the following parameters at the moment: Excise duty (ranging from 12% to 27%), infrastructure tax (1% to 4%) VAT (12.5% to 14.5%), octroi / entry tax (specific states) (4% to 6%) and road tax.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The GST for cars will subsume Excise duty, infrastructure tax and VAT. Octroi is most likely to be abolished under GST as GST is a destination based tax that is levied at point of sale and not purchase.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, at the 13th GST council meet in New Delhi stated that the government will be keeping a headroom of about 3 per cent for imposing the cess on demerit goods (at a rate of 15 per cent.)

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

If the supplier of goods or services and place of supply of goods or services are located in same State, then CGST and SGST is payable. SGST of that state is payable, when supplier and place of supply is in one state. However, if the supplier and the place of supply are located in different States, then IGST is payable.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

As per revised Model IGST Law, place of supply involving movement of goods shall be the location of the goods where movement of goods terminates for delivery to the recipient.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Where supply does not involve movement of goods; the place of supply will be the location of goods at the time of delivery to the recipient.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The place of supply of goods in case of assembly or installation of goods will be the place of installation or assembly.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The place of supply in case of goods taken onboard for consumption in aircraft, is the place or location at which such goods are taken on board. For example, if an aircraft departs from Bangalore to Mumbai after taking onboard food for consumption on board, the place of supply will be Bangalore.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The location of supply of goods exported from India shall be the location outside India.

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.