Skip to main content

Difficult to accept demand for an exact GST rate Jaitley

Today, every state government, including all the Congress ones, is in favour of the Goods and Services Tax. You have every political party in Parliament which has said they will vote in favour. ARUN JAITLEY, Union finance minister
The government remained hopeful on Thursday about the prospects of a nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST), but maintained its unwillingness to specify the tax rate in the proposed law, arguing that it could distort the system.
Once adopted, the GST can dramatically alter India’s indirect tax system by replacing a string of central and state levies such as excise, value added tax and octroi into a single unified levy and stitch together a common national market.
“Today, every state government, including all Congress ones, is in favour of Goods and Services Tax (GST),” finance minister Arun Jaitley said at a media event.
“You have every political party in Parliament which has said they will vote in favour,” he said.
The Lok Sabha passed the landmark amendment to the Constitution in May 2015, but has remained stuck in the Rajya Sabha, which must endorse the Bill with a two-thirds majority. At least half of the 29 state assemblies will have to ratify it before it finally becomes a law.
The Congress wants the GST rate to be capped at 18% and specified in the bill itself.
This is a departure from the Bill passed in the Lok Sabha, which has not specified the rate.
Jaitley said it is extremely difficult to accept the demand because the Constitution will have to be amended each time the tariffs need to be increased.
According to the Bill, the rates were to be decided by a GST council headed by the central finance minister with state finance ministers as members.
“I think that’s the only glitch. I would still want the Congress to come on board. I can easily see and this is going to happen at this stage of biennial election. The numbers are significantly changing and in any case, I am reasonably confident that the numbers in the Upper House also are in favour of GST,” he said.
The Congress, which for years has been championing the need for replacing the layers of local and regional taxes that have caused red-tape, confusion and corruption with a single levy, has termed the rejigged law of its 2011 version as flawed.
“In the Lok Sabha, the Congress walked out, every other party voted in favour. The Congress party has now made a statement that it has only one issue about the Constitutional cap which is a little difficult because our tariff is not decided through Constitution amendment,” Jaitley said.
On Thursday, the Congress said the government gave “casual treatment” to the GST bill.
“With regard to the GST, which was the brainchild of the UPA government, in the budget they have given casual treatment. They do not find any strategy or a roadmap for its implementation.,” Cong ress leader Veerappa Moily said. The government, however, could accede to the Congress’s demand to scrap the “entry tax” of 1%.
The entry tax was aimed at making GST more equitable amid fears that it can give more revenue to consuming states such as UP, Kerala and West Bengal compared to producing or industrialized states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat or Tamil Nadu.
The Congress, however, has pointed out that such an additional levy will distort the objective of a common national tax, making the system flawed.
Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 18th March 2016 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New income tax slab and rates for new tax regime FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25) announced in Budget 2023

  Basic exemption limit has been hiked to Rs.3 lakh from Rs 2.5 currently under the new income tax regime in Budget 2023. Further, the income tax slabs in the new tax regime has been changed. According to the announcement, 5 income tax slabs will be there in FY 2023-24, from 6 income tax slabs currently. A rebate under Section 87A has been enhanced under the new tax regime; from the current income level of Rs.5 lakh to Rs.7 lakh. Thus, individuals opting for the new income tax regime and having an income up to Rs.7 lakh will not pay any taxes   The income tax slabs under the new income tax regime will now be as follows: Rs 0 to Rs 3 lakh - 0% tax rate Rs 3 lakh to 6 lakh - 5% Rs 6 lakh to 9 lakh - 10% Rs 9 lakh to Rs 12 lakh - 15% Rs 12 lakh to Rs 15 lakh - 20% Above Rs 15 lakh - 30%   The revised Income tax slabs under new tax regime for FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25)   Income tax slabs under new tax regime Income tax rates under new tax regime O to Rs 3 lakh 0 Rs 3 lakh to Rs 6 lakh 5% Rs 6

Jaitley plans to cut MSME tax rate to 25%

Income tax for companies with annual turnover up to ?50 crore has been reduced to 25% from 30% in order to make Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) companies more viable and also to encourage firms to migrate to a company format. This move will benefit 96% or 6.67 lakh of the 6.94 lakh companies filing returns of lower taxation and make MSME sector more competitive as compared with large companies. However, bigger firms have shown their disappointment since the proposal for reducing tax rates was to make Indian firms competitive globally and it is the large firms that are competing globally. The Finance Minister foregone revenue estimate of Rs 7,200 crore per annum for this for this measure. Besides, the Finance Minister refrained from removing or reducing Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT), a popular demand from India Inc., but provided a higher period of 15 years for carry forward of future credit claims, instead of the existing 10-year period. “It is not practical to rem

Don't forget to verify your income tax return in August: Here's the process

  An ITR return needs to be verified within 120 days of filing of tax return. Now that you have filed your income tax return, remember to verify it because your return filing process is not complete unless you do so. The CBDT has reduced the time limit of ITR verification to 30 days (from 120 days) from the date of return submission. The new rule is applicable for the returns filed online on or after 1st August 2022. E-verification is the most convenient and instant method for verifying your ITR. However, if you prefer not to e-verify, you have the option to verify it by sending a physical copy of the ITR-V. Taxpayers who filed returns by July 31, 2023 but forget to verify their tax returns, will get the following email from the tax department, as per ClearTax. If your ITR is not verified within 30 days of e-filing, it will be considered invalid, and may be liable to pay a Late Fee. Aadhaar OTP | EVC through bank account | EVC through Demat account | Sending duly signed ITR-V through s