Gist of GST

ESHA AGRAWAL , Last updated: 22 August 2016
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You all must have heard so many information on the Goods and Services Tax. Some are saying GST will take away the ‘cascading impact’ of taxes and some are saying GST is ‘one nation, one rate’.

Firstly GST will not reduce the amount of tax you pay, but it will make it less tiresome to pay and collect. GST is about fewer taxes, at unified rate, as we all know that the taxes are levied both by central and state government in indirect taxes in different level like vat , service tax, excise duty etc, what GST will do is to sweep (‘subsume’) many indirect taxes into a single label.

As things stand, the Centre has agreed to sweep excise duty and additional excise duty, service tax, countervailing duty, surcharge and cess and central sales tax into the waiting arms of GST. The States have obligingly agreed to give up VAT (sales tax), entertainment tax, luxury tax, taxes on gambling, octroi and entry taxes, cess and purchase tax. GST will thus replace all of these taxes.

When goods are shipped from one State to another, then it is called inter state, the Centre will collect an integrated GST retained its part of share and give state part of share to state government like if goods are moved from Uttar Pradesh to Haryana then it is called inter state, centre will collect GST and give state share to Haryana govt, When the goods are moved within a state then it is called intra state like from Uttar Pradesh to Uttar Pradesh then Central GST and State GST will be levied.

As we all know currently we are working on ‘value added’ tax regime where taxes paid on inputs are deducted from taxes due on final product, but this exists in name only because so many taxes like central sales tax, additional excise and customs duty, luxury tax, to name a few — are not eligible for such set-offs, As a result, both producers and sellers end up paying taxes on the same inputs over and over again.

It should be thanks that in case of GST there is no concept of input tax credit all taxes are summed up and GST is you pay just once for.

Now here is the meaning of some basic terms in GST like What does the word GOODS means in GST

Goods means all kinds of movable properties (which can be moved as such without any dismantling) (only tangible) eg:- visualize, marker, exercise machine, fan etc

INCLUDING securities, growing crops & grass, things attached to or forming art of the land e.g. electricity pole etc
EXCLUDING money, Actionable claim

What does the word SERVICES means in GST

ANYTHING OTHER THAN GOODS i.e. Do something or not to do something (like non-competence contract, cancellation charges of hotel/ aircraft etc.)

INCLUDING intangible property (which cannot be touched like copyright, patent etc)
EXCLUDING Money

What does the word SUPPLY means in supply of goods/ services

If supply is for a consideration-

All form of supply of goods/SERVICE :- exchange, transfer, barter, lease etcIN THE COURSE of business
AGENCY SERVICES for supply or receiving goods/ services e.g. consignment agent
Aggregator service e.g. meru cab/ uber/ Ola etc

In GST even if NO CONSIDERATION is there then also supply exists like-

Stock transfer, supply of goods between two registered units/ branch
Transfer of business assets:- PERMANENT transfer, temporary transfer, retained on De- registration
Service put to pvt-use
Import of service( business use or personal use)

Some clarification regarding supply of Goods v/s supply of services

In case of Movable Property (Goods)

If there is sale of goods i.e. transfer of ownership then it is called supply of goods but
if only “ RIGHT TO USE” is transferred then it is called supply of service

In case of business assets