Govt invites public comments on GST issues

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SME Times News Bureau | 12 Oct, 2015
In a move to engage with stakeholders and invite public comments on Goods and Services Tax (GST) issues, draft business processes on GST registration, refunds and payments has been put on the web and comments invited through the MyGov.in portal, an official statement said.

"The draft model CGST, SGST and IGST laws, along with GST business processes for filing of returns, shall also be put up for inviting comments of stakeholders in due course," said a finance ministry statement.

Emphasising that the government intends to introduce the GST at the earliest, the statement said: "The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Second Amendment) Bill, 2014, has been introduced in the parliament for facilitating the introduction of GST in the country."

Earlier this week, the empowered committee of state finance ministers on the GST recommended that the Reserve Bank of India's e-Kuber solution be used for consolidating and settlement of accounts under the GST system.

E-Kuber, the RBI's core banking solution, is designed as an integrated payment and receipt mechanism.

In three reports relating to registration, payment process and refunds in the GST, the committee suggested that internet banking, over the counter payment and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) mechanisms, used to transfer funds, should be extensively used to facilitate payments.

The GST seeks to create a single Indian market by subsuming most indirect taxes levies of the central and state governments, such as excise duty, service tax and value-added tax that is seen as facilitating tax compliance, and curbing inflation through better supply chains.

The central government has set the target to reform India's indirect tax regime from April next year.

But securing legal sanction for GST is proving a lengthy process, given the Narendra Modi government's inadequate strength in the upper house as bill being a constitution amendment bill, needs passage in parliament with two-thirds majority, following ratification by at least 15 state legislatures, before it can be sent to the president for his assent.