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]

Bihar and Telangana had already passed the SGST laws while Rajasthan was likely to approve the bill on Wednesday.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Allaying fears that consumers would have to pay more for goods and services under the GST regime due to an increase in tax rates, Mr. Adhia said the prices of most items would decrease while those of services might stay at the same level.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Though a majority of the services would see service tax rising to 18% under the GST regime from the current 15%, most services would get the benefit of input tax credit on purchases and, therefore, the overall tax incidence wouldstay the same, he said. However, there could be a marginal increase in tax for some services, Mr. Adhia added.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The GST Council’s next meeting is scheduled for May 18-19 and is expected to discuss fitment of commodities in the four-tier tax structure under GST.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Under GST, every registered person would be assigned a compliance rating on the basis of the record of compliance in respect of specified parameters. The ratings would be made public.

A prospective client would be able to see a supplier’s rating and decide whether to deal with the supplier or not, said Prakash Kumar,CEO, GST Network (which provides IT infrastructure and services for implementation of GST).

Mr. Kumar said it would help in healthy competition among taxable persons.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Prices will not increase due to higher incidence of tax and, instead, are likely to come down under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, the central government said on Tuesday.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

"Almost 60 per cent of the income of the Centre and states comes from items that attract 14 per cent value added tax and 12.5 per cent excise duty. There will be a likely decrease in the tax on each of these items under GST," Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia told reporters at a GST conclave here.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Adhia said that though most services will be taxed at 18 per cent under the GST regime, as against the current 15 per cent service tax, a majority of these will get input tax credit on purchases and the overall tax incidence will remain the same.

"About 18 per cent (service tax) will become equivalent to 15 percent. There will not be much of an increase in service tax. There could be a marginal increase of tax for some services," he said.

"It is a possibility that there will be more than one rate for service tax. It is not necessary all services will attract 18 percent tax. Abatement will be kept in mind."

"For a few services, the rate will be decided keeping in mind abatement (relief) that it attracts. For such services, rate will be less that 18 percent," Adhia added.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The government will try to finalise the rates of tax for each item at the earliest, the Revenue Secretary said.

He also said that the government will soon issue the rules concerning the provision of GST Compliance Rating for an assessee under the law.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The GST Network (GSTN) system will furnish the taxpayer track record regarding the compliance level, especially about the track record related to timely uploading of supply invoices giving details about the auto reversals that have happened for invoices issued by a supplier.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

If a taxpayer tries to evade tax, the GSTN software will be able to detect that and downgrade the compliance rating, the Secretary added.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Adhia said the government plans to roll out GST from July 1.

"Our full effort is to roll out GST from July 1 and I urge trade and industry to not be complacent," he said.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

As many as 14 states have said they will pass the State GST (SGST) Bills by the middle of next month and by May-end all legislatures will have passed the SGST Bill, he added.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

While the businesses are waiting for the tax rates for various commodities under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the government is unlikely to announce the rates soon. The fitment of rates will be made public only a few days before the July 1 roll-out, sources told FE, adding that an early announcement could give rise to market distortions and hoarding. “Unlike the West, India has a price-sensitive market where any indication of minor increase or decrease in tax rates tempts the consumers to rate buy a product. This rate buying is not a good indication for any economy as it may result in black marketing and hoarding,” Rajat Mohan, director-indirect taxation, Nangia & Co said.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Although the GST Council’s next meeting is slated to be held in Srinagar on May 16 and 17, the council is only likely to review the progress made by officials in the rate fitment committee. The rate fitment committee which comprises tax officials of the central and state governments has only met once last week where they deliberated on fine-tuning the principle of application of rates, a source said.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

“It’s a possibility that a manufacturer may ramp up or slow down production till July 1 if it’s known that a commodity will be taxed at a lower/higher rate under GST. But these are business decisions an entrepreneur needs to take, especially since transition rules allow only 40% of input tax credit on excise tax paid on the closing stocks, which may not be sufficient for many businesses,” Archit Gupta, founder and CEO, Cleartax.com said.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The source reiterated that the GST rate for an item will be, to the extent possible, the one that is nearest to the current rate. It is expected that the council will take into account is the real tax incidence at present rather than the nominal rate.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

The flip side of the delayed announcement of rates is the paucity of time for businesses to prepare themselves. Gupta said while large companies have been preparing for GST for over a year and are more likely to adjust to the late rate announcement, it can wreak havoc for small businesses.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

“Professionals and businesses need time to access the impact of reduced tax rates and we feel the time is short in case the announcement of tax rates is made near to the date of implementation, especially for FMCG companies which would have numerous products with different rates,” a source said.

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

HSN (Harmonised System of Nomenclature) code shall be used for classifying the goods under the GST regime. Taxpayers whose turnover is above ₹ 1.5 crore but below ₹ 5 crore shall use 2-digit code and the taxpayers whose turnover is ₹ 5 crore and above shall use 4-digit code. Taxpayers whose turnover is below ₹ 1.5 crore are not required to mention HSN Code in their invoices.

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.