Skip to main content

Racing Towards GST, I-T to Hold Industry's Hand

By
10 groups set up under senior taxmen to examine issues and report by April 10
As India gets ready for its biggest tax reform in decades, industries such as ecommerce, banking and insurance, logistics and others will get another chance to resolve any niggles they have with the goods and services tax (GST), which the government wants to put in place by July 1.
Ahead of the introduction of GST-related legislation in Parliament this week, the government has set up 10 groups to iron out sectoral issues faced by trade and industry to ensure a smooth transition to the new regime with just a little over three months to go. The President gave his assent to the four GST laws last week, paving the way for their introduction in Parliament.
The groups have been set up under senior tax officials to examine the concerns of industry and submit reports by April 10.
A senior government official told ET that most issues have been addressed through feedback but it was felt some sectors having special peculiarities needed a closer look to ensure they were able to make a glitchfree shift to GST.
The sectors up for review include banking, finance and insurance, telecom, exports, IT ITeS (information technologyenabled services), transport and logistics, textiles, MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), oil and gas, gems and jewellery, and services received and provided by the government. The working groups can seek the views of the administrative ministries and key industry bodies, professionals and experts as needed. They have been asked to focus in particular on procedural simplifications and the rate structure. The government will take a call based on the reports of the groups and may even expand them by including officers from the state governments to quickly settle issues.
A July 1 rollout will leave the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) about three months to sort out all grievances.
MANY CONCERNS
The concerns relate largely to procedural matters and compliance complexities. The ecommerce sector's objections, for instance, relate to registration in every state while MSMEs are worried about electronic compliance readiness and costs.
Under GST, much of the scrutiny will happen electronically through invoice matching, a measure that will reduce the interface with tax officials, but this has its own challenges.
Experts welcomed the initiative, pointing to a host of unresolved issues.
“While the draft GST model law is out, several critical issues such as treatment of tax paid on transition stock, inter-office supplies, state in which GST has to be paid in case of multi-locational services, etc, are still not clear,“ said Pratik Jain, leader, indirect tax, PwC. “It will be good if the government considers setting up similar groups for a few other sectors such as FMCG and media.“
Business Standard New Delhi,27th March 2017

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Household debt up, but India still lags emerging-market economies: RBI

By
  Although household debt in India is rising, driven by increased borrowing from the financial sector, it remains lower than in other emerging-market economies (EMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report. It added that non-housing retail loans, largely taken for consumption, accounted for 55 per cent of total household debt.As of December 2024, India’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 41.9 per cent. “...Non-housing retail loans, which are mostly used for consumption purposes, formed 54.9 per cent of total household debt as of March 2025 and 25.7 per cent of disposable income as of March 2024. Moreover, the share of these loans has been growing consistently over the years, and their growth has outpaced that of both housing loans and agriculture and business loans,” the RBI said in its report.Housing loans, by contrast, made up 29 per cent of household debt, and their growth has remained steady. However, disaggregated data sho...
Post a Comment
Read more

External spillovers likely to hit India's financial system: RBI report

By
  While India’s growth remains insulated from global headwinds mainly due to buoyant domestic demand, the domestic financial system could, however, be impacted by external spillovers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half yearly Financial Stability Report published on Monday.Furthermore, the rising global trade disputes and intensifying geopolitical hostilities could negatively impact the domestic growth outlook and reduce the demand for bank credit, which has decelerated sharply. “Moreover, it could also lead to increased risk aversion among investors and further corrections in domestic equity markets, which despite the recent correction, remain at the high end of their historical range,” the report said.It noted that there is some build-up of stress, primarily in financial markets, on account of global spillovers, which is reflected in the marginal rise in the financial system stress indicator, an indicator of the stress level in the financial system, compared to its p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Retail inflation cools to a six-year low of 2.82% in May on moderating food prices

By
  New Delhi: Retail inflation in India cooled to its lowest level in over six years in May, helped by a sharp moderation in food prices, according to provisional government data released Thursday.Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased to 2.82% year-on-year, down from 3.16% in April and 4.8% in May last year, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed. This marks the fourth consecutive month of sub-4% inflation, the longest such streak in at least five years.The data comes just days after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%, its third straight cut and a cumulative reduction of 100 basis points since the easing cycle began in February. The move signals a possible pivot from inflation control to supporting growth.Food inflation came in at just 0.99% in May, down from 1.78% in April and a sharp decline from 8.69% a year ago.A Mint poll of 15 economists had projected CPI ...
Post a Comment
Read more