India Inc urges govt to roll out Goods and Services Tax

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SME Times News Bureau | 09 Feb, 2015
Apex industry body, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Sunday urged the government to speedily implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill tabled in the Lok Sabha, allowing industry participation in the discussions on the proposed indirect tax regime.

"CII hopes that GST would be implemented at the earliest keeping in mind that it should subsume all taxes, be applicable to all products and services, and involve a reasonable Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR)," the chamber said in a statement.

"CII believes that industry should be allowed to participate in the Task Force on RNR and other significant issues such as Integrated GST, Place of Supply Rules and draft GST legislation," it added.

The chamber further said the government should avoid raising excise duties in the upcoming union budget for the success of the Make in India programme.

"While we understand the imperative to garner fiscal resources, CII feels that demand is still fragile. Moreover, the manufacturing sector continues to be vulnerable," said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII.

"Under these circumstances, it would be prudent to allow excise duties to remain at current 12 percent," he added.

"On central sales tax, CII has requested for reduction in rate from 2 percent to 1 percent in view of delay in implementation of GST," it added.

With last month's rate cut by the Reserve Bank, industry is looking at the budget session of parliament for progress on the proposed GST Bill that would absorb most central, state and local levies by April 2016.