July 1st Deadline of GST Must be Kept at Priority

There is no doubt that GST Bill  is a right decision for keeping in line with the Ease of Doing Business and if implemented  with proper simplification and rationalization of taxes will give impetus to growth of GDP by 1% to start with.

Moreover, there is a strong need to further simplify various archaic laws and regulations pending with the Government to attract domestic and foreign investment which will ultimately generate exports and employment highlighted Mr. Vijay Kalantri of AIAI (All India Association of Industries).

Industry Reactions:

CBEC has released 8 draft rules under GST for registration, transition, valuation, invoice, credit, payment, refund and composition. Earlier CBEC in September released draft rules for GST returns which are not released this time but additionally rules for credit, valuation, transition and composition are released.  Sharing an observation on the landmark development, Naveen Wadhwa, DGM, R&D, Taxmann.com said, “One major observation from these rules is that now reciepient has time of 180 days to make payment to the supplier of goods or services without reversing input tax credit. Earlier, recepient has to make payment within 90 days from the date of issue of invoice, otherwise an amount equal to input tax credit availed by the recipient shall be reversed or added to his output tax liability, along with interest. Moreover, earlier it was only applicable for services and not for goods. Now, this limit is applicable for reciepient of goods as well as services. And reciepient has to submit a form with in 60 days of appointed date for GST rollout to take credit of taxes standing in his returns before GST rollout or credit of goods held in stock on appointed date.”

The All India Association of Industries (AIAI) welcomes the introduction of GST Bill passed in the parliament by  Mr. Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, Government of India  shall make the way forward for implementation of GST on estimated date of July 01, 2017 said Mr. Vijay Kalantri, President, All India Association of Industries (AIAI).

Interactions &  Brainstormings on GST

In an Assocham event, in New Delhi, The Finance Secretary, Mr Ashok Lavasa urged the Indian industry, to work and prepare for the July 1 roll out of the Goods and Services Tax , which would take the country into "very exciting phase" of tax administration.

Addressing an ASSOCHAM meeting on the GST roll out, Mr Lavasa said "We should all work towards July 1, if it gets achieved". He said along with the government, the industry should organise training sessions for the trade and industry for the roll out of the new tax reforms.

Assocham President, Mr Sandeep Jajodia informed the Finance Secretary that the ASSOCHAM has already held over 55 conferences in different parts of the country on GST.

Dwelling on a host of issues, the Finance Secretary also allayed concerns that the fear of vigilance probes is coming in the way of the banks resolving the problem of the non-performing assets (NPAs). The honest bank officers have nothing to worry about and the existing laws provide them ample scope for finding a way out of the bad debt problem, Mr. Lavasa.

“I don't know whether there can be a law which can make people fearless. If you take honest decisions you don't have to fear three 'Çs' or 10 'Ç'," Mr Lavasa said in response to concerns from the industry leaders that senior bankers are not willing to show courage in reaching settlements with the troubled units as they   have a lurking fear of Central Vigilance Commission, CBI or CAG .

The Finance Secretary said, "If you take honest decisions you don't have to fear. ...Financing documents and rules of the game provide scope to sit with the banks in the interest of investment".

He said efforts are on to save projects which have run into rough weather because of events beyond control of individuals or industries. The problem of the NPAs of the banks is restricted to a few sectors but it has to be resolved.

The Finance Secretary said the focus of the government is to efficiently spend increased outlays on public and infrastructure projects , including MNREGA which is run with greater efficiency or Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes. As much as Rs 34,000 crore has been saved so far by implementing DBT in 78 schemes. Things like Aadhar seeding and inter-linkage of different schemes has helped plug the pilferages and bogus claimants.