GST’s April 1, 2017 deadline looks uncertain, may be implemented by July: Pawan Munjal

Dated 19th December, 2016

Stating that GST implementation deadline of April 1, 2017 looks very uncertain, Chairman, MD & CEO of Hero Motocorp Pawan Munjal on Monday told that GST may be implemented by July. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley last week said that certain “turf issues” still remain to be sorted out before GST rollout and the new indirect tax regime can be implemented anytime between April 1 and September 16, 2017. “GST is a transactional tax and not an income tax. Transactional tax can start in any part of the financial year and therefore, the range of timing when it has to come into force because of constitutional necessity is April 1, 2017 to September 16, 2017. Hopefully, the earlier we do, the better it is for the new taxation system,” Jaitley said.

PwC India Executive Director Sumit Lunker said, As far as the model GST law is concerned, there is no big challenge in passing it as the GST Council has already cleared discussion on 20 chapters and only 7 chapters remain. “While the issue of dual control remains unresolved till date, state governments across the country are keen to implement GST at the earliest. I am hopeful that the GST Council in its December 22-23 meeting will arrive at a consensus on the pending issues,” he said.

Meanwhile, talking about the impact on sales after demonetisation, Munjal said, “Sales are much better as compared than a month ago. It is getting back to normalcy very fast”. Retail sales will normalise by next quarter, he added.