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GST Collections may Help Beat Deficit Target: Goyal India is likely to improve upon the fiscal deficit target this fiscal year thanks to rising goods and services tax (GST) collections, finance minister Piyush Goyal said.  “There is a perception that the fiscal deficit will not be met, but I feel that we will actually do better than our budgeted fiscal deficit,” Goyal told reporters in the capital on Monday.  The fiscal deficit target was revised in the February budget to 3.3% for FY19 against the 3% that it had been pegged at previously. The government has already run up 55% of the budgeted fiscal deficit in the first two months of the financial year, raising worries in some quarters about a breach. The fiscal deficit stood at  Rs. 3.45 lakh crore in April-May. In the year-ago period, this was at 68.3% of the budget estimate as the government frontloaded spending.  Goyal’s optimism stems from improved GST collections. He expects them to cross Rs 13 lakh crore ...

GST likely to get centralised AAR for uniform rulings India is looking at creating a centralised Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR) for the goods and services tax (GST) after divergent rulings on identical issues fuelled confusion over applicability and the rate of tax. A recent case in point being the divergent rulings by Karnataka and Maharashtra AARs on the issue of solar projects.  “We are looking at an issuebased central authority with officials from states and the Centre,” a top government official told ET. “If more than one appeal is filed on the same issue in different jurisdictions it can be taken up by this body.” The AAR is a quasi-judicial body that allows assessees to get guidance on their potential tax liabilities relating to any transaction beforehand. The rulings by the AAR are case-specific, but they have a persuasive impact on tax assessment in cases of other firms under similar circumstances.  This is the key reason behind the government contemplating...

Govt likely to go slow on key anti-evasion measure under GST The implementation of the reverse charge mechanism is likely to be disruptive for small traders, a key electoral constituency of the ruling BJP, said two people familiar with the development The government is unlikely to insist on implementing the reverse charge mechanism, a key anti-evasion measure proposed under the goods and services tax (GST), on concerns that the rule will adversely impact small businesses while not yielding revenue gains.  The implementation of the reverse charge mechanism is likely to be disruptive for small traders, a key electoral constituency of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said two people familiar with the development. Instead, they said, alternative ways to curb tax evasion are being explored. Under the reverse charge mechanism, entities (registered under GST) that purchase goods from small unregistered dealers have to pay a tax on behalf of the latter. This is expected to add to...