Centre to share model GST law with states today

 The Centre is also working on multiple options apart from 'horizontal' and 'vertical' division for deciding on jurisdiction over tax assessees, he said. The Centre will share the draft model GST law with the states today as it prepares for the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 1 next year, CBEC Chairman Najib Shah said. The Centre is also working on multiple options apart from 'horizontal' and 'vertical' division for deciding on jurisdiction over tax assessees, he said. "We are very hopeful of GST implementation from April 1, 2017. By tomorrow we will share the model GST law with the states which has been redrafted after taking into account the comments of stakeholders," Shah said while inaugurating the CBEC pavilion at the IITF. He said the Compensation law will be shared with the states on November 16 detailing the procedure for making good revenue loss of states in the first five years of GST rollout. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has taken up Goods and Services Tax as the theme for its IITF pavilion and it tries to educate people about the new taxation regime which is expected to roll out from April next year. The GST will subsume excise, service tax, VAT and other local levies and will help in smooth movement of goods and services across the country. The Centre and states have already decided on a four-tier GST rates-- 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent-- but is yet to decide on the issue of cross empowerment to avoid dual control. Differences arose with the states demanding control over 11 lakh service tax assessees, and the Centre proposing to do away with the states having exclusive control over all dealers up to an annual revenue threshold of Rs 1.5 crore -- an issue which was settled in the first meeting of the GST Council. The Council has arrived at an option of two proposals -- horizontal division and vertical division. 'Horizontal division' would mean taxpayers would be divided both for administrative and audit purposes based on a cut off turnover. Those with a turnover over Rs 1.5 crore would be administered both by the Centre and states, while those with below Rs 1.5 crore would be administered solely by the states. Under the 'vertical division', taxpayers could be divided in a ratio which would balance the interest of the Centre and the state, both with respect to revenue and spread of numbers.

(Economic Times)

Enrolment in GST

Enrolment in GST begins at www.gst.gov.in. Delhi, Haryana, UP, Punjab from 16.12.2016 to 31.12.2016).  Gujarat, Maharastra 14.11.2016 to 29.11.2016. ST assessees in Jan 2017.

Multi-layered GST Complicated But Unavoidable

Say Tax Experts Tax experts are divided over the multi-layered goods and services tax finalised by the GST Council on Thursday. Some said the multi-layered GST is too complicated and undermine the key benefit of this reform, while others said having different tax slabs is unavoidable in a country like India and will help keep rates close to what is prevailing. “The multi-layered structure will see classification issues and complicate matters from transaction perspective especially for companies dealing with more than one product,“ said Bipin Sapra, partner (indirect taxes) at E&Y. “Overall it is a balanced structure as it would keep the change in tax incidence minimum as compared to today,“ he said. Rajeev Dimri, leader (indirect tax) at BMR & Associates, said that from the perspective of overall tax incidence, levy of cess on luxury items and demerit goods should be acceptable to the industry as these goods face a similar tax burden presently. “However, dealing with another tier of tax would be administratively difficult to handle, specifically given the short timeframe that the India Inc has in hand for setting up GST enabled systems,” he said. “Also modalities around levy of cess, viz point of levy, credit eligibility, etc. will be critical aspects to watch out for,” Dimri added. Effectively, there will be seven rates under the GST regime -exempt, 2-4% for gold, 5% for essential commodities, two standard rates of 12% and 18%, 28% rate and higher rate on demerit goods that includes a cess over and abo ve the 28% rate. Krishan Arora, director at Grant Thornton India, said that while the consensus on rate structure among the Centre and the states seems to be a step closer towards timely implementation of GST, the essence of the multiple split tax rates will need to pass the test of industry acceptance on grounds of revenue neutrality and zero cascading across sectors, specially go ods falling in the 28% bracket. Prashant Deshpande, partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells, said the increase in maximum marginal rates to 28% coupled with the announcement that it will be applied to items currently taxed at rates in that range would mean that rate as a criteria would cease to play a role in evaluating benefits from GST for such products. Sandeep Chilana, partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, said while the present approach is a departure from international practice of single GST rate, this collaborative and consultative approach should successfully address the peculiar social, political and economic complexities in India. Earlier, NITI Aayog vice chair man Arvind Panagariya and finance minister Arun Jaitley have defended multi-layered tax rate. Panagariya had said such a system would ensure less inflationary implications and lower tax rates for consumers as well as revenue predictability for the exchequer. “A four slab rate structure for GST is better than going in one go on to a single rate as in the latter price effect on specific products could be substantial,” he had said. Jaitley had supported the multilayered structure on the pretext that similar structure exits elsewhere. “Some developed countries, which do not have any section of the population below the poverty levels and where economic standards are high, have three-four slabs,” he had said in his blog.

 (Business Standard)

GST Site to Open soon so Filing

 Online filing portal to be thrown open to public from next week and will allow tax payers to register themselves in advance and fill in their details Much before the April deadline of the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the online filing portal is ready to throw itself open to the public from next week, enabling tax payers to warm up to the new system before it finally launches in April of next year. On Thursday, the GST Council finalised a four-tier tax structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28% for the new tax regime, with lower rates for essential items and the highest for luxury and de-merits goods. According to a government official, the GST portal will be hosted at the domain http:www.gst.gov.in, which will be launched on November 8, even as the mobile app is currently being developed. “The proposal was discussed in the GST panel meeting today (Thursday) and the date has been finalised. There was no adverse reaction to it,“ said the official who requested anonymity. The portal will allow tax payers whose PAN numbers have been verified by the tax department to register themselves in advance and fill in their details and legacy data. “The idea is to avoid everyone trying to log-in at the same time before the roll-out in April,“ said the official adding that the government is looking at getting the tax payers to enter all the data about themselves in their system for it to work smoothly at the time of the launch wit hout any “challenges“. ET had reported earlier that India's second-largest software company Infosys has been mandated to develop and run the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) -the entity tasked with providing the information technology infrastructure for it -in a project worth . 1,380 crore. The portal itself will ` be a one-stop destination for filing and processing of all taxes for almost 65 to 70 lakh tax payers in the country and is being designed by a specialised design unit of Infosys. The GST portal will be a front for the tax payer where registration, return and payments will be filed. It will also provide help-desk support. The technology at the backend will have the power to analyse data for trends on sales, tax filings etc. The portal will allow businesses to register using their PAN and mobile number or Aadhaar number. All businesses will be given a GST identification number, which will be a 15-digit code, consisting of their state code and ten-digit PAN.GSTN has already validated the PAN of 58 lakh businesses from the tax department over the past two years. The official added that GSTN has already generated the GST identification numbers for around 20 lakh tax payers in eight states and has sent the data to the states for further disbursal. The rest of the tax payers will be covered in batches over the coming weeks, said the official. “We are doing it right now for VAT which covers excise as well, since those paying excise are also registered for VAT. Registration for people paying service tax will begin in January,” said the official. The entity is also in the process of developing a mobile app through which tax payers can also register themselves and at the same time allow them to file taxes or upload returns. “We are making the process really simple by allowing people to just take pictures from their phone cameras and then upload them,“ said the official, adding that the app is also expected to be ready over the next five to seven days.


(Economic Times)