FM: Government is working on a target date of 1st April, 2017
for the roll out of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) in the country.
The
Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley said that the Government is
working on a target date of 1st April, 2017 for the roll out of the
Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the country. He said that till 16th
September, 2017, that is one year after the provisions of the
Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016 being brought into force, the
Constitution empowers the Central Government to levy excise duty on
manufacturing; and service tax on the supply of services. The Finance
Minister said that similarly the Constitution Amendment Act empowers the
State Governments to levy sales tax or Value Added Tax (VAT) on the
sale of goods till that time i.e. 16th September, 2016. The Finance
Minister Shri Jaitley said that so far the Government is following the
road map for implementation of GST as per the schedule. The Finance
Minister Shri Jaitley was making his Opening Remarks at the Fourth
Meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the
Ministry of Finance held here today. The subject of today's Meeting was
the Goods and Services Tax (GST)
The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley
further said that the First Meeting of the GST Council was held in a
very cordial and constructive environment earlier this month and today,
he will hold the Second Meeting of the GST Council. In the GST regime,
the GST Council has been created under Article 279A of the Constitution.
The GST Council is a joint forum of the Centre and the States. The
Council will take decisions on important issues like tax rates,
exemption list and threshold limits etc.
Thereafter, the Members
of Consultative Committee who participated in today's Meeting sought
various clarifications with regard to GST Law and gave suggestions for
its better implementation. Some of the major suggestions include need
for absolute clarity and transparency with regard to where taxes will be
collected, assessed and where the appeal will be filed in case of GST
regime. The members said that it will be challenging task to tackle
complex situation arising-out of implementation of GST law in a federal
system. Some of the members suggested there is a need for launching a
large scale Awareness Campaign especially for the small traders as most
of them are still unaware about the complex procedures and processes
under GST regime including for registration and filing of returns etc.
Some of the members suggested that availability of IT network in all
parts of the country, especially in small towns and rural areas, must be
ensured as GST system will work only online. Some of the members
appreciated the initiative of the Government in getting the GST law
passed by both the Houses of Parliament as well as its commitment to
implement it in a time bound manner. The members hoped that this law
will bring relief to the common man by exempting certain essential items
from GST and moderate rate of taxation on other items which in turn
will bring down the prices of common man consumption items as well as
cost of living at large.
Along with the Union Finance Minister,
Shri Arun Jaitley, Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for
Finance, the Members of the Consultative Committee who participated in
the today's Meeting include Shri Baijayanta Jai Panda, Shri Dilip Kumar
Mansukhlal Gandhi, Shri Kailkesh Narayan Singh Deo, Shri Prabhatsinh
Chauhan, Shri Ram Charitra Nishad, Shri Subhash Chandra Baheria and Shri
Suresh Chanabassappa Angadi (all members of Lok Sabha); Shri Anil
Desai, Shri Digvijaya Singh, Shri Rajkumar Doot and Shri Satish Chandra
Misra (all members of Rajya Sabha) .
Among the officers who
attended the Consultative Committee Meeting include Shri Ashok Lavasa,
Finance Secretary, Shri Shaktikanta Das, Secretary, DEA, Dr. Hasmukh
Adhia, Revenue Secretary, Ms. Anjuly Chib Dugal, Secretary, Financial
Services, Shri Neeraj Kumar Gupta, Secretary, DIPAM, Dr. Arvind
Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA), Chairman, CBEC Shri Najib
Shah and other senior officers of the Ministry of Finance.
PIB
