Skip to main content

GST Overhaul on Cards to Make it Less Taxing

By
GST Overhaul on Cards to Make it Less Taxing
Changes may be with regard to input credit, place of supply and valuation provisions
The goods and services tax could be in for a revamp that's more comprehensive than the tweaks that have been made thus far to iron out kinks to make compliance less on erous. The GST Council has set up a new advisory group that includes industry representatives to look into such changes. Experts said these may apply to input credit apart from place of supply and valuation provisions.
The group will give its report to the law committee of the council by November 30. This will be reviewed by the committee and forwarded to the council for speedy action. “A group has been set up to give feedback about the issues faced by industry with regard to laws, rules and procedures,“ said a government official. This is in addition to changes proposed to the composition scheme to bring relief to small businesses and traders that could be taken up by the GST Council at its upcoming meeting on November 10 in Guwahati
The council could also reduce the rate of tax on some goods from 28% to 18% at this meeting. Traders and small businesses have complained about provisions in GST, which was rolled out on July 1, replacing multiple state and central taxes and cesses. They have sought the simplification of various rules in multiple representations to the government.Among the key points that may be addressed in a revamp are rules that deal with input tax credit, how to arrive at the value of goods and services for taxation purposes, invoices and determining from where a service is provided.
The latest panel will have former revenue service officer Gautam Ray as co-convener and include representatives of small businesses and retail. The group will specifically look at the central, state and integrated GST laws and problems faced by stakeholders due to their provisions.“Till now, the changes have been carried out by way of notifications and instructions,“ said Pratik Jain, indirect tax leader, PwC. “There is a need to do a comprehensive review of changes required in the legislation as well, based on issues that have already been highlighted by industry.“
PM Modi had indicated on Saturday that the government could take up more measures to ease problems faced by small businesses.The GST Council had at its last meeting raised the turnover threshold for the composition scheme to Rs 1crore from Rs 75 lakh. It also set up a group of ministers under Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to look at other issues related to taxation under the composition scheme and GST for restaurants. The council is expected to lower the flat tax rate for traders availing of the composition scheme to 0.5% from 1% if they include both taxable and tax-exempt goods in their turnover.
The Economic Times, New Delhi, 06th November 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