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]

CBIC will continue to perform Central Excise levy & Customs functions. CBIC will have 21 Zones,101 GST Tax payer Services Commissionerates.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

FM Arun Jaitley, today, has approved re-organisation of field formations of the Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) for implementation of GST.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Proposed CBIC to supervise the work of all its field formations & Directorates & assist the Government in policy making in relation to GST.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

GST is expected to roll out from July 1, 2017 and replaces existing indirect taxes apart from Customs.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Goods and Services Tax (GST) portal has initiated a portal to check status of conversion of existing registration to GST.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Tax payer can now check whether the existing registration has successfully migrated to GST.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Tax payer can now check whether the existing registration has successfully migrated to GST. For the same tax payers need to follow following steps:

1. Select the concerned state from the drop down.

2. For the purpose of reference number, ID Type needs to be selected. Tax payers can choose from Provisional ID, PAN or Registration number.

On submission, portal will show whether the migration has been successfully completed or not.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The anti-profiteering clause introduced under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is unlikely to lead to any immediate cost benefits to customers. Experts have raised concern over its implementation.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

GST tax rates will be revised for 80,000 items in the country depending on the type of product and the ingredients used in its manufacturing. While rates have not yet been disclosed for any product or service, the GST regime will be applicable from July 1, 2017.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The concern raised on anti-profiteering clause in GST is primarily for the reason that tracking all registered companies could pose to be a challenge.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

MS Mani, Senior Director, Deloitte Haskins and Sells said that while the aim of the GST Council is to ensure that no manufacturer pockets the profits that they get due to a lower rate of tax it will be a big task to track each company and whether or not they have reduced prices.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

If one company reduces prices, others may need to bring down prices. With respect to the B2B business, Mani added that the clients will be forced to adopt competitive pricing.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

There has been a four-rate GST structure of 5 percent, 12 percent, 18 percent and 28 percent that has been finalised for the country. This will subsume all other taxes including excise, value-added tax and octroi.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Mani explained that companies could even argue that their overall costs including production and manpower have gone up, leaving little room to keep rates low.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

“There is a possibility of manufacturers arguing that costs necessitate them to increase prices whereas they have, in fact, kept prices stable,” MS Mani, Senior Director, Deloitte Haskins and Sells said.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

If taxes go up and the company faces a direct hit, the end consumer will have to pay a premium for the regular products that he/she may purchase. In such case checking for anti profiteering clause would be difficult.

[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]

As a result of abolishing cesses and surcharges, 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]

The Union Cabinet has 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.

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.