Negating the negative list regime

The 2012-13 Budget introduced the ‘negative list’ based taxation of services. The shift from positive to negative list was meant to enlarge the taxpayers’ base, and shift to a simpler system ahead of GST (Goods and Services Tax) implementation. The negative list regime primarily intended to simplify legislation by taxing all services except those specifically exempted. It was also meant to simplify compliance. Accordingly, with the introduction of the negative list, taxable service categories were removed and a single tax code introduced for registrations, tax payment and other uses