Government is working on 4-slab rate, exemption for 50 per cent goods and services,

AHEAD of the first meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on September 22-23, the Government is of the view that the basic tenet of the GST regime would be that it is “pro-poor” with 50 per cent of essential goods and services exempted from any tax.

The tax exclusion to nearly half the goods and services, an official said, would be “optically and politically correct” for the NDA government as already 300 items in the Centre and nearly 80 items in the states have this exemption.

At a review meeting Wednesday that discussed the run-up to the rollout, the consensus seemed to be that the new tax regime should not put fresh inflationary pressure and backed Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia’s proposal of a tax band of 8 to 26 per cent with four rate slabs.

Sources said it was suggested that proposed slab rates of 8, 10, 18 and 26 per cent be tweaked to 10, 12, 16 and 25 per cent so that it did not affect revenue earnings and kept states on board as the final call has to be taken by the GST Council comprising state Finance Ministers and headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

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Existing taxpayers of VAT, service tax and excise will be migrated to GSTN soon

Beginning next month, the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) will start migrating over 80 lakh taxpayers onto its system. This will facilitate the smooth implementation of the GST regime. “The first part of our software will be ready by end October. Existing taxpayers of value added tax, service tax and central excise will be migrated to GSTN,” said Navin Kumar, Chairman, GSTN.

Identities to be issued

In an interview to BusinessLine, he said the GSTN will begin issuing GST identity numbers (TIN) and generating passwords for these taxpayers. “They can log on to our system, familiarise themselves [with it] as well as provide us relevant information,” he said. The GSTN, which will provide the IT infrastructure for the new indirect tax levy, has already received a list of all the taxpayers, their Permanent Account Numbers (PAN), names of the business entities, and their constitution or form from the tax authorities.

Requirements

On receiving their ID and passwords, taxpayers will be expected to log on to the GSTN and provide three additional inputs — place and address of business, name(s) of directors or proprietors, and details of bank accounts — which will become part of the GST records.

“Though the taxpayers will have time up to six months after the roll out of GST to provide this information, but we thought we will give them an opportunity to come on the system now itself and familiarise themselves,” said Kumar, adding that annually about four lakh new taxpayers are estimated to enrol on the IT network.

He also expressed confidence that the GSTN will be ready to meet the roll-out target of the indirect tax levy from April 1, 2017. “We will have a beta run from the end of February to end March and will go live from April 1,” he stressed.

Read Full :-http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/taxpayers-to-get-a-feel-of-gst-next-month/article9111652.ece

Cabinet approves creation of GST Council and its Secretariat

The Union Cabinet under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved setting up of GST Council and setting up its Secretariat as per the following details:

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