Tag: GST

Political realities cannot be ignored for uniform GST rates, says CEA Arvind Subramanian

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today said it is easy to advocate one uniform GST rates for all goods, but it cannot be done ignoring political realities.

He also said that no one wants to tax essentials consumed by poor.

“My own view is that, we need more simplicity in India and we need to go towards at some stage bringing in uniformity in GST rates, but we cannot do that divorced from political realities,” he said responding to a PTI query at interactive event here.

“No political system can accept BMW cars or cigarettes being taxed at 18 per cent rate,” he added.

He responded when he was asked to comment on the Congress’s stand demanding capping of GST at 18 percent which led to a war of words between Modi and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram.

Chidambaram on March 29 had countered Modi for calling it a “grand stupid thought” and asked if the government considered Subramanian also stupid for voicing the same argument.

“Why can’t the normal GST rate be 15 percent and Revenue Neutral Rate plus rate on luxury goods be 18 percent …,” Chidambaram had said.

He also said that nobody wants to tax essentials which are consumed by poor.

However, as long as GST rates are kept relatively clean and simple, Subramanian said, India will make progress.

For instance, the 28 percent GST rate was brought down by GST Council over the period of time because many felt it was high, Subramanian said.

“Going forward more such things (reduction in GST rates) will happen,” he added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

E-Way bill system introduced across the country

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Electronic Way (E-Way) Bill introduced under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime rolled out across the country from Sunday, on its second attempt at implementation following an earlier start in February.

The E-Way Bill, at present, applies to inter-state transportation of goods worth over Rs 50,000 through road, railways, airways and vessels.

For intra-state movement of goods, the new system would be launched in two weeks’ time, Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia had announced on last week.

GST Network (GSTN) Chief Executive Prakash Kumar said that around 11 lakh businesses and transporters had registered on the e-way bill platform and expected most registrations to take place at the last minute.

About 1.05 crore businesses have registered under the new GST regime, of which around 70,00,000 are filing returns.

The Finance Ministry clarified on Saturday that a single E-Way Bill will apply even in cases of a break in journey to destination and where more than one transporter is involved in the transportation of goods.

“It is clarified that in such a scenario, only one E-Way Bill would be required,” a ministry statement said, citing the example of a break in journey involving a third city and which has been undertaken by two transporters.

The government also “clarified that the validity period of e-way bill starts only after the e-way bill details are updated by the transporter for the first time”.

According to British consulting multinational Deloitte, introduction of the E-Way Bill would help the government in plugging possible evasion and increase revenues which have been under pressure.

“The phased introduction of E-Way Bill, initially on interstate movements and subsequently on intrastate movements is a good approach,” Deloitte India Senior Director M.S. Mani said.

“It must be ensured that the second phase of e-way bill requirement for movements within the state is done in a calibrated manner considering the experiences of the first phase.”

In view of the difficulties faced by the traders in generating the e-way bill due to initial technical glitches in the GST Network, it was earlier decided by the GST Council to extend the trial phase for generation of e-way bills, both for inter-state and intra-state movement of goods.

In its meeting in February, a group of ministers headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi recommended April 1 as the date for compulsory implementation of the system for inter-state goods movement.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Hours before e-way bill rollout, authorities clear doubts

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Government of India has come up with clarifications regarding the new e-way billing system. The clarifications come just hours before the new billing system will come into effect across the country.

The clarifications were posted on the official twitter account of the government of India with regard to queries and doubts on the GST system. In the post, two different hypothetical situations are given along with explanations to address doubts.

Clarification with respect to the e-way bill System pic.twitter.com/CYNXnBDGVQ

— GST@GoI (@askGST_GoI) March 31, 2018

Both the situations are hypothetical and are concerned with confusions that arise when more than one transporter are linked with the goods transport. The first question deals with the problems of generating the bill if two different transporters are involved in intra-state goods transportation through a third state.

As per the post, even in such a situation, there requires only a single e-way bill. While the first transporter can fill the details on part B of the FORM GST EWB-01, the second transporter only needs to update the form by adding additional information.

The second situation addresses the validity of the e-way bill if the date of handing over of goods by the consignor is different from the date when transporter starts is journey. The answer to this problem is that the validity of the bill is not calculated based on the date the consignor filled part A of the form, but from the day the transporter filled part B.

The explanation by the government comes amidst worries regarding the successful roll out of the system. Though authorities have said that the e-way bill generation capacity has been equipped to handle 75 lakh bills a day, many are apprehensive.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Achieving new highs, IPOs: The year it was for Indian markets in FY 17-18

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Benchmark Indian indices, the Nifty and the Sensex underperformed compared to its Asian peers such as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, and Japan’s Nikkei indices, India Infoline, a financial service company said.

Nifty 50 and Sensex soared to new highs of 11,130 (Jan 29, 2018) and 36,283 (Jan 29, 2018) respectively for the first time.

Concerns over political uncertainty over future elections added to woes, while falling credit quality, and a rising number of defaulters contributed to the decline in indices.

Nifty PSU Bank sector performed poorly following the news of constant unveiling of fraud in the banking system.

“Globally, rising interest rate scenario in the US, rising bond yields, trade war between the US and China, not forgetting risk of an inverted yield curve is an early sign of the US economy entering into recession, which increases the risk of a decline in the business cycle,” IIFL said.

Implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in real estate and better earning season for corporates supported gains, in addition to the moderate consumer price index (CPI) inflation stood positive for the market

Initial Public Offerings:

Nearly 190 companies started trade on the bourses in the financial year 2017-2018 with a total worth of about Rs. 74,000 crore.

About 13 companies had an issue size of Rs. 1,000 crore which include companies such as:

> General Insurance Corporation of India at Rs. 11,373 crore
> New India Assurance at Rs. 9,600 crore
> SBI Life Insurance at Rs. 8,386 crore
> Bandhan Bank at Rs. 4,473 crore

While most of these IPOs have given high returns, some IPOs listed at a discount and added to losses.

Here are the top companies which listed at a premium in FY 2017-18.

Here are the top companies which listed at a loss in FY 2017-18

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

CBEC expedites GST refunds to exporters

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has issued fresh instructions to Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) on Friday to fast-track stuck export refunds.

In an exclusive report, CNBC-TV18 learned from a government official that the Centre and state governments have cleared out a major chunk of GST related refunds to exporters.

Centre and the state governments have released Rs. 5,000 crore and Rs. 2,500 crore input tax credit (ITC) refund to exporters respectively, which were due till February 2018.

Rs. 1,800 crore ITC, for the said period, is still pending to be released in April 2018, the official said.

The Union government has also refunded Rs. 8,000 crore in the Integrated Goods and Service Tax (IGST) up till January 31, 2017, while Rs. 5,010 crore IGST refunds are still pending.

CBEC is currently processing Rs. 1,500 crore pending IGST, which is to be released soon to the exporters.

CBEC has appealed to exporters to submit proper documentation for expeditious processing of Rs. 3,500 crore pending IGST refunds.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

PNB auditor in Nirav Modi case under scanner for GST evasion

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In yet another twist in the Nirav Modi case, the auditor of Punjab National Bank, BDO, which was appointed by the bank on February 27 to conduct a forensic audit on the firms of diamantaire Nirav Modi, has come under the scanner for alleged tax evasion, The Indian Express reported.

BDO’s India office and its partner MSKA and Associates have been accused of non-payment of Goods and Service Tax(GST), the paper reported Thursday.

An official told the paper that BDO has been collecting GST from the clients since July 2017, but hasn’t been paying itself since then. The collected GST amount is Rs 13.5 crore, according to the report.

The sources quoted by the paper said Directorate General of GST Intelligence officials conducted searches at the BDO offices in Mumbai and Pune on March 27 and 28 and learnt about the irregularities.

However, a BDO India spokesperson told the paper that “The visit of GST officials and their agenda was routine in nature and it turned out that BDO India was fully compliant on all concerns raised”. “The Rs 2 crore payment was also made by us, voluntarily in the course of discharging our liability, the rest of which is being paid, again in normal course and with concurrence of the tax officials. As a matter of policy and good governance, BDO discharges all its duties including payment of taxes responsibly and in compliance with the law,” said the report.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

GST collection falls by Rs 1,144 crore in March

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Revenue collection under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) fell for the second consecutive month in February by Rs 1,144 crore to Rs 85,174 crore.

The collection had marginally slipped in January to Rs 86,318 crore from Rs 86,703 crore in December.

“The total revenue received under GST for February 2018 (received upto March 26) has been Rs 85,174 crore,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

It added that 59.51 lakh GST returns were filed for February till March 25.

“This is 69 percent of total taxpayers which are required to file monthly returns,” it said.

Of the Rs 85,174 crore, Rs 14,945 crore has been collected as Central GST (CGST), Rs 20,456 crore as State GST (SGST), Rs 42,456 crore as Integrated GST (IGST) and Rs 7,317 crore compensation cess, the Finance Ministry said.

It added that Rs 12,140 crore was being transferred from IGST to CGST account and Rs 13,424 crores from IGST to SGST account by way of settlement of funds on account of cross utilization of IGST credit.

“Thus, a total amount of Rs 25,564 crores is being transferred from IGST to CGST and SGST account by way of settlement,” the Ministry said.

Before picking up in December to touch Rs 86,703 crore, the revenue collection had fallen for two consecutive months from over Rs 92,000 crore in September to Rs 83,346 crore in October and Rs 80,808 crore in November.

The GST collection for July was over Rs 95,000 crore while for August it was more than Rs 91,000 crore.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow