CA Online

With the central and state governments laying down the groundwork for the roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST), Karan Choudhury spoke to Krishan Arora,   partner, Grant Thornton India LLP, on how the new indirect tax regime would impact the e-commerce sector. How is the e-commerce industry preparing for the GST roll-out? E-commerce players are getting detailed GST analysis undertaken to assess impacts and changes on various facets including financials, cash flows, working capital, IT   changes, and compliances. Do you think the industry would be looking at restructuring warehouse as there would be no area- specific advantage left ? Currently, warehousing strategies are tax- oriented, which restricts effective utilization of available resources and leads to logistics effeciency. With the GST in   place, there wouldbe uniformity in imposed taxes. Companies may consider restructuring warehouse strategy , keeping in mind business imperatives and not tax....

THE DRAFT RULE COMES AT A TIME WHEN NEW DATA CONFIRMS THAT 65 RTI APPLICANTS HAVE BEEN KILLED SINCE 2005, WHEN THE LAW CAME INTO FORCE The government will soon notify new Right to Information (RTI) rules, which can put a whistleblower's life in danger and allow appeals to be withdrawn, as per its   commitment in the Supreme Court. Activists say this will weaken the only law that empowers citizens to question the government. The Centre told the Supreme Court earlier this year that it was in the process of framing new rules for regulating the transparency law in an appeal filed by   information watchdog Central Information Commission (CIC) with the apex court. The CIC had challenged the Delhi high court order nullifying its 2007 regulation, saying they were in violation of the RTI Act. In absence of any regulation, the CIC   was finding regulating appeals difficult and approached the Supreme Court for redress. During hearing, the Centre gave an undertaking tha...

Threshold for taxing agriculture income should be same as urban income, says Bibek Debroy Agricultural income should be taxed at the same threshold as personal income, Niti Aayog, the government's thinktank, has proposed in its draft three-year action plan. Farm income could be assessed for tax as a three-year average, Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy said at a press briefing on Tuesday, making a case for widening the taxpayer base. “There should be no distinction between urban and rural. The threshold for taxing rural agriculture income should be the same as urban income. However, rural agriculture income taxed could be an average of three years as it is subject to weather fluctuations,“ Debroy said, explaining the Aayog's proposal to expand the country's tax base. The government plans to do away with personal income tax exemptions, an exercise that's already under way for corporate income. However, taxing agricultural income would require an amendment to the...

With the goods and services tax (GST) being destinationbased, states might be unable to provide incentives to encourage local industry. At the GST Conclave in New Delhi, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on Tuesday said, “States are wondering how to continue with promised benefits.  Any incentive has to be by way of the Budgets.” States offering the incentives might not even be able to collect taxes, he added. In interstate sale of goods, the destination states would collect the tax.  Some states currently offer incentives through refunds.  As the valueadded tax is originbased, some states pay back the producers, irrespective of whether or not goods move out of the state. Once the new indirect tax regime is rolled out, states may only be able to offer businesstoconsumer (B2C) incentives, but not businesstobusiness (B2B) ones.  Adhia gave the example of goods produced in Gujarat but consumed in Bihar.  “What right will Gujarat have to forgo the tax of Bih...