oppn parties Welcome Solution to GST Tangle

News Snippets

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  • In Assam, a controversy erupted after a picture of UPPL leader Benjamin Basumatary, lying on a stack of Rs 500 notes circulated on social media. UPPL is an ally of the BJP
  • AAP's Jalandhar-West MP Sushil Kumar Rinku joins the BJP. He was the only AAP Lok Sabha MP
  • Supreme Court dismisses Centre's plea to review its 2023 verdict in the PMLA case
  • Close save for passengers as they remain unhurt after the wings of two planes graze at Kolkata airport. Pilots derostered and inquiry ordered by DGCA
  • Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh gets notice from the EC as well as the BJP for making ugly remarks about Mamata Banerjee's parentage
  • Sadanand Vasanth Date, who faught terrorists in the 26/11 attack and was awarded the Preisent's Police medal, has been appointed the head of the NIA
  • Centre will borrow Rs 7.5L cr in the first six months of FY25, nearly 50% of the target for the full year
  • 25 stocks, including SBI, will see same day trade settlements from today in the world's fastest settlement mode in both BSE and NSE
  • Stocks recover smartly on Wednesday: Sensex rises 526 points to 72996 and Nifty 118 points to 22123
  • Tennis: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden reached the semifinals of the Miami Open
  • IPL: records tumble as SRH beat MI in a high-scoring match. SRH score 277/3 with 18 sixes and Mumbai score 246 with 20 sixes to fall short by 31 runs. Atotal of 38 sixes, highest in an IPL match were hit and both teams combined to score 523 runs, the highest aggregate in an IPL match
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  • IPL: RCB beat Punjab by 4 wickets as Kohli and Karthik shine with the bat
  • India strongly objected to German foreign office remarks over the arrest of delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, called it "biased assumptions"
Delhi Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena says government cannot be run from jail, hints at President's Rule in the capital ////// In a dangerous incident, the wings of two planes grazed while taxiing on the runway at Kolkata airport, all passengers were safe but DGCA ordered an inquiry and the pilots were derostered
oppn parties
Welcome Solution to GST Tangle

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2017-01-17 19:45:26

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
The GST tangle seems to have been solved with the pending contentious issues finding a solution. Although the date has been pushed back to July 1, 2017 it is better in a way because by then, expectedly, the confusion created by demonetization will be over and done with and the economy will be ready to shift to something as dynamic and forward-looking as the GST.

There were two major issues that were holding back the GST. Both the Centre and the states wanted to have jurisdiction over the small enterprises and high seas sales. Under the deal reached, the states will assess 90% of those with turnover under Rs 1.5 cr and the rest will be assessed by the Centre. Both the Centre and the state will share control over those having turnover in excess of Rs 1.5 cr., with the finance minister clarifying that each assessee will be assessed by only one authority. High seas sales will be assessed by the states in a major concession by the Centre.

West Bengal stuck out like a sore thumb, protesting against the deal but its stand was neutralized as all other states agreed to the formula that was worked out. It is sad that despite being in the forefront of the GST implementation (successive finance ministers from West Bengal have chaired the committee tasked with drawing up the modalities of GST), West Bengal objected to the final decision. This was only due to changed political equations and not due to economic considerations.

GST is a major reform that will turn India into a common market by removing a plethora of indirect taxes by both the Centre and the states. It will also remove tariff barriers that prevent free movement of goods. Further, it will act as a disincentive to do illegal business as input tax deduction will not be available if materials are sourced from illegal sources, making the final product costlier and uncompetitive.

GST has the potential of bringing a huge number of units in the informal sector to the formal economy, thereby boosting revenues and clamping on generation of black money. Further, transparency in taxation and administration will do away with frequent disputes with assessees. Of course there will be some teething problems initially, but once everyone gets the clear picture, India will do better business and the governments will collect more tax.