Published On : Fri, Mar 31st, 2017

CAMIT hails passage of key GST Bills as a milestone in tax reforms

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Nagpur: Chamber of Associations of Maharashtra Industry and Trade (CAMIT) has hailed the passage of the key GST Bills by Lok Sabha as an important milestone in tax reforms. It has congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team for introduction of GST in India.

CAMIT further said the Finance Minister in his reply to debate on GST Bill had assured that GST rates though recommended by Council, will be notified only after same are tabled by various States in their respective legislative bodies. Thus changes in rates would not be in the exclusive domain of executive. He also assured that for one commodity there will be one rate in the country. However, in the light of experience from VAT we have to wait and time will only unfold how the system will actually work.

“While addressing the concern on definition of agriculturist, FM said that it is only for the purposes of exemption from registration and stressed that majority of agri-products would be either zero rated or exempted. He, however, lost sight of the fact that if co-operative farming (farmer) or share crop (adhiya) is not specifically included in the definition they will have to abide by the formalities of registration, return filing and other procedures even though their product will be zero rated or exempted,” CAMIT President Dipen Agrawal said.

“We also request FM and the Council that while drafting rules/procedure for monitoring anti-profiteering due care should be taken to save the industries from the provisions anti-profiteering when rates are reduced to support the ailing sector/industry. Also, while framing rules/procedures for Transition Provisions for category of traders who do not procure goods directly from manufactures Council should take care that procedure is reasonable, easy to comply with and no rightful CENVAT Credit is denied.”

CAMIT strongly believes and reiterates that there is no merit in conferring GST officers with unrestricted powers to reject transactional value and fix the same as he deems fit because GST is a paradigm shift from present first point tax to multiple point tax under Central Indirect Tax. This empowers Union Government to levy and collect tax on entire value addition till the goods or services reach the hands of consumer. Such power under Central Excise was mother of unwarranted litigations. Here we once again suggest that while drafting the rules/procedure on the subject, an obligation should be cast upon the GST Officer that before invoking his powers to reject the transaction value he should first prove that there is some consideration other than the transactional value, Agrawal said.

“In next couple of months government should endeavor to educate the small and marginal traders and MSME on procedural aspect of GST. We also caution Union & State governments that in their zeal to introduce GST they should not ignore enhancing of ‘ease of doing business’ principle and also take due care that CAG Audit should not become a tool for harassment to small traders and MSME sector,” CAMIT stated in press release.