News on GST

GST rate on all Electric Vehicles reduced

The 36th GST Council Meeting held on 27th July, 2019 has recommended the following:

GST rate related changes on supply of goods and services

• The GST rate on all electric vehicles be reduced from 12% to 5%.
• The GST rate on charger or charging stations for Electric vehicles be reduced from 18% to 5%.
• Hiring of electric buses (of carrying capacity of more than 12 passengers) by local authorities be exempted from GST.
• These changes shall become effective from 1st August, 2019.

Changes in GST law:

• Last date for filing of intimation, in FORM GST CMP-02, for availing the option of payment of tax under notification No. 2/2019-Central Tax (Rate) dated 07.03.2019 (by exclusive supplier of services), to be extended from 31.07.2019 to 30.09.2019.
• The last date for furnishing statement containing the details of the self-assessed tax in FORM GST CMP-08 for the quarter April, 2019 to June, 2019 (by taxpayers under composition scheme), to be extended from 31.07.2019 to 31.08.2019.

Source : PIB

2nd anniversary of Goods & Services Tax to be celebrated on 1st July 2019

GST was launched on the 1st July, 2017 in a majestic ceremony held in the Central Hall of Parliament on the midnight of 30th June, 2017. Hence, the Government alongwith partners from the trade and industry is celebrating the 2nd Anniversary of GST on 1st July 2019.

Source : PIB

Changes recommended in Composition Scheme

The following changes were recommended in the Composition Scheme on the basis of discussions held in the 23rd meeting of the GST Council held at Guwahati recently.

• Uniform rate of tax @ 1% under composition scheme for manufacturers and traders (for traders, turnover will be counted only for supply of taxable goods). No change for composition scheme for restaurant.
• Supply of services by Composition taxpayer upto Rs 5 lakh per annum will be allowed by exempting the same.
• Annual turnover eligibility for composition scheme will be increased to Rs 2 crore from the present limit of Rupees 1 crore under the law. Thereafter, eligibility for composition will be increased to Rs. 1.5 Crore per annum.
• The changes recommended by GST Council at (ii) and (iii) above will be implemented only after the necessary amendment of the CGST Act and SGST Acts.

Source : PIB

Mobile App “GST Rates Finder” launched to help users to find rates of GST for various goods and services.

“GST Rates Finder” mobile app is now available on android platform and will soon be available on iOS platform as well. This Mobile app helps users to find rates of GST for various goods and services. It can be downloaded on any smart phone and can work in offline mode, once downloaded.

The user can determine the GST rate for a good or a service by entering the name or Chapter heading of the commodity or service. The search result will list all the Goods and Services containing the name which was typed in the Search Box. The user can scroll down the list of description and when any specific item on the list is clicked, the display window will pop-up, containing details such as GST rate, description of goods or services and the Chapter heading of the Harmonised System of Nomenclature (HSN. For example, any person who has been billed by a hotel or a restaurant or for footwear can cross verify the correctness of the rate of GST charged.

CBEC has also provided a GST rate finder on its portal cbec-gst.gov.in to help the taxpayers know the applicable GST rate on their supplies of goods and services. A taxpayer can search for applicable CGST, SGST, UTGST rate and Compensation Cess on a supply. The search can be made based on description of goods or services or HSN Chapter or section or heading number.

Source: PIB

GST roll-out - Details of how it happened

Goods and Services Tax (GST), a historic tax reform effective from 1st July, 2017 will completely transform the Indirect Taxation landscape in the country involving both the Central and State levies. In a departure from the normal practice, GST will be administered together by the Centre and States.

After the assent of the Hon’ble President on 8th September, 2016, the 101th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2016 came into existence. The GST Council was constituted on 15.9.2016.

The law and procedure to implement the tax reform was formulated involving 27000+ man hours of intensive work. More than 200 meetings of the officers of the Centre and States took place in different parts of the country to expedite the implementation of GST.

While framing GST Acts and Rules, enhanced ‘Ease of doing business’ for the taxpayers was a key consideration and accordingly the roles and responsibilities of the States and Central govt have been defined. In a short span of time, the GST council has cleared GST laws, GST Rules, Tax rate structure including Compensation Cess, Classification of goods and services into different rate slabs, exemptions, thresholds, structure for tax administration, etc. All the decisions of Council were taken with consensus. While formulating the Acts and Rules, extensive participatory consultations with trade and industry including other significant stakeholders were undertaken. Feedback was also obtained by posting draft Acts and Rules on the websites and inviting comments from the public.

The Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Bill, 2017, The Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) Bill, 2017, The Union Territories Goods and Services Tax (UTGST) Bill, 2017 and the GST (Compensation to States) Bill, 2017. They were passed by the Lok Sabha on 29th March, 2017 and by the Rajya Sabha on 6th April, 2017.

The GST Council has decided the final structure of GST as follows:

• The threshold limit for exemption from levy of GST is Rs. 20 lakh for the States except for the Special Category, where it is Rs 10 Lakh.
• A four slab tax rate structure of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% has been adopted for GST.
• A cess would be levied on certain goods such as luxury cars, aerated drinks, pan masala and tobacco products, over and above the GST rate of 28% for payment of compensation to the states.
• The threshold for availing the Composition scheme is Rs. 75 lakh except for special category States where it is Rs. 50 lakh and they are required to file quarterly returns only. Certain categories of manufacturers, service providers (except restaurants) are out of the Composition Scheme.

Other Important Features of GST

• GST envisages all transactions and processes to be done only through electronic mode, to achieve non-intrusive administration. This will minimise tax payers physical interaction with the tax officials.
• GST provides for the facility of auto-populated monthly returns and annual return.
• It also facilitates the taxpayers by prescribing grant of refund within 60 days, and provisional release of 90% refund to exporters within 7 days. Further facilitation measures include interest payment if refund is not sanctioned in time, and refund to be directly credited to bank accounts.
• Comprehensive transitional provisions for ensuring smooth transition of existing taxpayers to GST regime, credit for available stocks, etc.
• Other provisions include system of GST Compliance Rating, etc.
• Anti-profiteering provisions for protection of consumer rights.

GST Network (GSTN) – IT backbone of GST

GSTN has been created as a section 25 private limited company with Strategic Control with the Government, to function as a common Pass-through portal for taxpayers. On this common portal, taxpayers will submit their registration applications, file returns, make tax payments, claim refunds etc. GSTN has been provided with a robust IT platform and it will provide interface to 80 lakh taxpayers and thousands of tax officials. All filings under GST will be done electronically.  While GSTN remains a front-end, at the back end, the IT systems of CBEC and different states interface with the GSTN IT network to provide a seamless end to end processing of tax returns for the taxpayers. Enrolment of existing taxpayers of the State tax administrations and the Central Board of Excise and Customs to the GST system commenced on 8^thNovember, 2016.

GST Application on Payment has been operationalized. 25 banks have been integrated with the GST Common portal and will be providing e-payment and Over the counter payment facilities as well as payment through NeFT/RTGS and credit/debit card.

Re-organisation of CBEC

Implementation of GST has necessitated reorganisation of the Central Board of Excise & Customs formations for administration of GST. The reorganisation involved bringing about structural changes and redeployment of human resources. Redeployment has been done to ensure outreach to the remotest corner. The Directorates which have significant role under the GST have been adequately expanded and strengthened.

The field formations have been restructured as 21 CGST & CX Zones, 107 CGST & CX Commissionerates, 12 Sub-Commissionerates, 768 CGST & CX Divisions, 3969 CGST & CX Ranges, 48 Audit Commissionerates and 49 Appeal Commissionerates.

Source: PIB