GST Legislation
The Revenue secretary, Mr Das has clarified that three draft legislations are being prepared by different committees comprising
i) Senior officers of the CBEC,
ii) Department of revenue and finance as well as
iii) Taxation department officials of state governments
Out of three committee's, one has already finalised its draft while others will also submit the draft by 15th September 2015.
It is equally important to understand that the three legislations are
i) Central GST (CGST),
ii) State GST (SGST) and
iii) integrated GST (iGST)
But, these legislations can be moved for passage in Parliament after the constitutional amendment Bill on GST becomes an Act.
GST Bill
Shri Arun Jaitley,Finance Minister,Union of India while addressing a conference of chief commissioners and director generals of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC),insisted upon officials to get ready for an implementation of GST.
Finance Minister further said that GST is going to be extremely friendly to the economy, to the businesses. It has the capacity to widen the base and yet reduce the level of harassment. It has the capacity to add to the country's GDP.
GST Council Vs GST Rate
Since 2014, AMLEGALS had firmly taken a view and suggested that Service Sector will not attract a GST rate more than 16% otherwise it will be unhealthy for the service industry .
Further , we have been also saying ,in various articles ,that the rates of GST will hover between 18% -24% as a maximum cap.
Now it is being said that Government is sensing that real growth of Service tax hovers around 16%.
Hence, a moderate of GST is on card but not on higher side.
However, GST Council shall be the authority to decide on GST rate slabs for different Goods and Services.
By
Anand Mishra,
Founder Advocate, AMLEGALS
The author is a leading advocate handling cases in CESTAT & High Courts of India. He can be contacted on anand@amlegals.com. For more please refer www.amlegals.com.
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