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The Andhra Pradesh government has requested the Centre to take steps for lowering the goods and services tax(GST) rates on ten categories of goodsand services, including tractors, fertilisers, and cashew nut kernels, stating the new rates would increase the tax burden on these items.State Finance Minister, Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, has written a letter to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley citing the concerns of trade on industry.According to the minister, the GST rates on these items are far higher than the combined rate of the existing state and Central taxes. The minister informed that the guiding principle in fixing the GST rates was that it should not exceed the combined rate of VAT, Central Excise/Service Tax, lest it would trigger inflation and hardship to the consumers. Business Standard New Delhi, 03rd June 2017

The Income Tax department on Friday warned people against indulging in cash transaction of Rs 2 lakh or more saying that the receiver of the amount will have to cough up an equal amount as penalty.It also advised people having knowledge of such dealings to tip-off the tax department by sending an email to ´blackmoneyinfo@incometax.gov.in´. The government has banned cash transactions of Rs 2 lakh or more from April 1, 2017, through the Finance Act 2017. Business Standard New Delhi, 03rd June 2017

40% relief may be increased to 60% at Council meet today In some relief for businesses, the goods and services tax (GST) Council might on Saturday enhance the refund limit for input taxes already paid on existing stock with traders without an invoice to around 60 per cent, up from the 40 per cent decided earlier.This comes after strong demand from industry. Companies have argued that a partial credit refund will adversely impact the supply chain, as most distributors would like to get into the GST regime with zero held over inventory. Business´ demand for enhancement of the refund limit ranges between 60 and 100 per cent.“We will address the concern. We have proposed enhancing the limit from the current 40 per cent to somewhere close to 60 per cent. But, we also have to balance our revenues.We cannot give out more refunds than the tax revenues.We will give 100 per cent refund if the invoice is furnished,” said a government official, who did not wish to be named. Under the GST, ta

The Institute of Chartered Accounts of India (ICAI), the regulatory body governing auditors, has proposed to the Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank of India introduction of the concept of joint audit in private banks to enhance the quality of audit.This follows questions over role of auditors in estimation of non-performing assets (NPAs) of some private sector banks. Recently three private sector banks—Yes Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank—had reported gross NPA figures in FY 2015-16 that were in variance of the RBI´s estimates.“As such we understand that there is no difference in the approach by ICAI members and RBI” when it comes to evaluation of NPAs, the institute said in an email response to Business Standard. It however added that there could be divergence in the loans identified as NPA by the management (ofabank), and agreed to by auditor, as against NPAs as per RBI inspectors.According to ICAI, these could crop up due to variety of reasons, including difference in interpreta

GST Knowledge Top 10 Key Clarifications issued by the GST Council:: 1) There is no change in format of GSTIN and therefore provisional & final GSTIN would be same. 2) Input Credit of Swachh Bharat Cess cannot be forwarded. 3) Input Credit of Krishi Kalyan Cess cannot be forwarded. 4) Provisions of Zero rated supplies are not applicable to EOU. 5) Supplies to Jammu & Kashmir will be treated as Inter-State Supply and shall be liable to IGST. 6) GST shall be applicable on sale of Second Hand Goods. 7) New registration under GST will start shortly before the appointed date i.e. 1st July, 2017. 8) E-commerce Operator (Snapdeal, Flipkart etc.) not required to register in seller’s state. 9) There is no provision for area based exemption under GST. 10) Textiles GST Rates, including that for readymade garments, yet to be considered and recommended by the GST Council.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on June 6 take stock of the readiness of the country for the roll out of goods and services tax on July 1. “It will be a review of the state of preparedness,“ a government official privy to the matter said. The Centre is in no mood to postpone the scheduled implementation and is making all efforts to ensure that the switchover to GST remains as smooth as possible for both industry as well as consumers. The GST Council has favoured implementation of the new tax system from July 1, but a section of industry and some states such as the West Bengal have demanded that it be postponed to September. Some industrial segments are unhappy with the rates and have approached the government seeking changes. Goods and Services Tax (GST) seeks to replace multiple central taxes such as excise duty, countervailing duty, cesses and state taxes including value-added tax, octroi, purchase tax and luxury tax with a single levy. The GST Council has decided upo

Banks that had hoped the government would allow them centralised registration under the goods and services tax (GST) appear to have been caught unaware. Now that they are required to register in each state, both public and private lenders are frantically trying to change their frontend information technology (IT) systems. Some of the bigger private and multinational banks started modifying their frontend IT systems about four months ago and expect to be ready by July 1, when the new tax regime is set to be rolled out. Some public sector banks, scheduled banks and smaller private banks began reconfiguring their systems only about a week ago or haven't even started. State-owned banks including Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank, Vijaya Bank and Indian Bank and scheduled banks Saraswat Bank, RBL and DCB called for proposals from IT companies only recently. The challenge for banks under GST is to register in each state, unlike the current tax system. They will have to maint