Prior to its last meeting, the GST Council (a legislative body) had sent the draft GST laws to a legal committee to ensure that the fundamentals agreed upon by the Council were appropriately reflected in the language of the draft laws. During the meeting on February 18, 2017, the GST Council discussed various issues in the legally vetted draft GST laws, finalised some issues, and discussed others without finality. The draft laws are expected to be approved by the Council during its next meeting on March 4 and 5, 2017.
The GST is still several crucial steps away from reality but the Modi government is moving methodically for its rollout from April 1 next year.
On September 1, 2016 Odisha became the 16th state to ratify the Constitutional Amendment Bill that will pave the way for the passage of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bill, thus, fulfilling the constitutional requirement of at least half of India's 29 states approving the bill. The President has, since, signed the 122nd Constitutional Amendment Bill into law soon.
This has allowed the government to proceed with the formation of the GST Council, which will decide on contentious issues like the GST rates, the mechanism to settle disputes and also come up with a draft GST legislation. Thereafter, the central and state governments will have to pass the central and state GST legislations and announce the date from which it will be implemented.
In the last GST council meeting held on 14th March, 2020, the GST rate on mobile phones was increased to correct the inverted duty structure on recommendations of Fitment Committee. GST rate was raised from 12% to 18% on mobile phones.
After the Lok Sabha approved the four supplementary GST legislations - Central GST (CGST), Integrated GST (IGST), Union Territory GST (UTGST) and the Compensation law, the Centre and the State governments will on Friday come up with the final rules and regulations of the new tax framework.
At its 31st meeting in New Delhi, headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the GST council decided to move 33 items from 18% GST slab to 12% and 5%. It was decided only 34 luxury items will be taxed at 18% or more. Jaitley said the decision on GST of real estate will be taken in next meeting.
Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) held a meeting with representatives of industry associations and exporters to discuss implications of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the sector. EPCH has prepared a petition on behalf of handicrafts exporters to be submitted to the GST Council, it said in a statement.
After 17 years of preparation and 18 meetings of the GST Council, a single unified Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India is today a reality. In a momentous launch at the Central Hall of the Indian Parliament with a speech by the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister of India, the GST regime was ushered in at the stroke of midnight on July 1, 2017. While the mammoth task for the Central and State Governments has just concluded, as far as trade and industry are concerned, the journey has only just begun.
At a time when all major handset manufacturers are struggling to cope with disruptions caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19), the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has worsened the matters for mobile phone sector.
The GST council has approved a ceiling for cess that can be charged on demerit goods and other luxury items to compensate states for any loss in tax revenue in the first five years.
The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has called for inputs on duty drawback rates from Export Promotion Councils and other top-tier industry bodies. Just like every other year, major stakeholders are to send across their views on the crucial refund mechanism for exporters. But unlike every other year, this exercise must consider the disruptive effects of the new GST regime on exporters
The Goods and Service Tax (GST) is a single consolidated indirect tax which is all set to be launched on July 1, 2017 to remove tax barriers between states and create a single market. It has been finalized and introduced by GST council headed by Arun Jaitley who is the finance minister of India. It will work as a single tax and absorb all other indirect taxes including central excise duty, services tax, additional customs duty, surcharges, state-level value added tax (VAT). It is going to be imposed on all transactions happen during the entire manufacturing chain such as sale, transfer, purchase, barter, lease, or import of goods and/or services.
Jaitley said the rate structure can be determined only after deciding whether compensation to states is to be funded out of the rate structure or some special cess or any other source.