Government seeks industry views on GST provisions
Dated 18th October, 2015
The union finance ministry has sought the views of Indian industry on provisions in the Goods and Services Tax(GST) regarding place of supply (PoS) rules in five sectors, including e-commerce and banking.
The GST will apply at the place of supply of goods or services.
A finance ministry official told reporters on Sunday that industry associations have been asked to give their views on the transitional provisions and core exemptions to ensure smooth implementation of GST.
"Industry should come up with suggestions to deal with the issues which could hamper smooth rollout of GST," the source said.
In a move to engage with stakeholders and invite public comments on GST issues, draft business processes on GST registration, refunds and payments has been put on the web and comments invited through the MyGov.in portal, it had been announced earlier.
The GST seeks to create a single Indian market by subsuming most indirect taxes levies of the central and state governments, such as excise duty, service tax and value-added tax that is seen as facilitating tax compliance, and curbing inflation through better supply chains.
The central government has set the target for its implementation from April next year, but it is currently stuck in parliament, especially over the cabinet's nod to some changes recommended by a parliamentary panel, notably an extra 1 percent levy to compensate the states for potential tax losses.
The opposition is opposed to this proposal as they feel this would not only push up prices, but also have a cascading effect.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said on Sunday it has appealed to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to withdraw the proposed additional tax.
"Levy of 1 percent additional tax on inter-state trade will certainly lead to distortion in GST and will have cascading effect," CAIT president B.C.Bhartia and secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said in a joint statement.
(This article is published in The Times of India on 18th Oct, 2015)