Goods & Service Tax Will Be A Reality By April 2016

The Central Government has finally agreed to many demands of various states during the most successful meeting held so far  on 15th December , 2014. This is claimed to be a win win deal and passing of first hurdle in rolling out the long awaited goods and service tax(GST) in India from April, 2016 .Now, the probability of introducing the amended bill in winters parliamentary session cannot be ruled out.

GST will ultimately create a unified market by ending up the multiple levies of taxes by the Centre and the States .Consequently, it will lower the costs for business and more revenue for  the government.The states were afraid of loss of flexibility but it is said that this meeting has cleared many such fears  .Broad agreement has been arrived between the Centre and various States.

For initial years , petroleum products will be outside the regime of GST.It is pertinent to note that many states get half of their taxes from such products only and for long it has had been a major concern for the states .

The said meeting was very significant for implementing GST in India in as much as  the states have been allowed to to levy the following taxes in addition to GST :

a.additional levy in lieu of entry tax -such tax will be subsumed into the combined tax on goods and services and

b.transitionary tax – manufacturing states like Gujarat and others can levy transitionary tax for one to two years

In addition to the above, it was also assured that the Central Government will substantiate all the losses of states for a period of 5 years after the rolling out of GST in India.

With these major developments, it can be said that very soon GST in India will be a dream come true . At the same , it is ironical to note that the original date was  April 2010 for implementing GST in India but it took long 6 years to implement by making a political will to build a uniform taxed regime in India and now date for its implementation is April 2016.

The author is a leading indirect tax advocate handling cases in CESTAT & High Courts of India. He can be contacted on anand@amlegals.com and for more details visit www.amlegals.com