Tuesday 12 May 2015

GST


AICE, EDAPPALLY- FOR BANK EXAM COACHING

GST (GOODS AND SERVICE TAX) 

In 2000, the Vajpayee Govt. started discussion on GST (Goods and Service Tax) by setting up an empowered committee. The committee was headed by Asim Dasgupta (Finance Minister, West Bengal. It was given the task of designing the GST model and overseeing the IT back-end preparedness for its rollout. 

Present system

India currently has a dual system of taxation of goods and services, which is quite different from dual GST. Taxes on goods are described as “VAT” at both Central and State level. It has adopted value added tax principle with input tax credit mechanism for taxation of goods and services, respectively, with limited cross-levy set-off. The present tax system has four major constituents:

1.Excise duty
2.Service Tax
3.Sales Tax/VAT
4.Customs duty

What GST is about?

the GST is a value added tax to be levied on both goods and services (except for a list of exempted goods and services), at both the centre and state level (Central GST and State GST respectively). This is a single tax which will be levied on the product or service which is sold. In other words, multiple taxes like CENVAT, central sales tax, state sales tax, octroi, etc will not exist and will be replaced by GST. This comprehensive tax covers all stages from manufacture to sale. The tax will be levied only on the value added at each stage of the life cycle.The tax-rate under the proposed GST would come down, but the number of assesses would increase by 5-6 times. Although rates would come down, tax collection would go up due to increased buoyancy. The government is working on a special IT platform for smooth implementation of the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The Lok Sabha has passed the GST Bill, whereas the Rajya Sabha referred the GST Bill to a Select Committee and has asked that the committee headed by BJP MP Bhupendra Yadav to submit its report on the last day of the first week of the Monsoon Session.
(2015-Compiled from different publications and broadcasts, for information of readers)