The two-day summit to finalise the goods and services tax (GST) concluded in Srinagar on Friday with most of the job done, but leaving a lot unfinished. The rates of six categories of products, including bidis, gold, agriculture implements, textile, footwear and bio-diesel, will now be taken up at another round of meeting on June 3 in New Delhi.
While the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, brainstormed on thousands of items ranging from consumer goods to luxury cars, steel and coal to betting and gambling, in a plush hotel against the backdrop of Dal Lake, the action shifted to historical ‘Chashme Shahi’, a royal spring at one of the Mughal Gardens, for announcing the outcome of the summit on Friday. The choice of venue became a talking point as former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi are believed to have often got water to Delhi from the Chashme Shahi spring.
But the summit was all about business, even as some government officials were planning to stay back an extra day to take in the sights of Gulmarg.
As for rates, the Council members — state finance ministers — deliberated for hours on Friday to get a fix on almost all services, swiftly progressing towards the July 1 roll-out of the unified indirect tax regime.
“We are in a state of readiness (for the July 1 roll-out)... The rates are not inflationary,” said Jaitley.
Close to 500 services had been slotted in four slabs of 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent, and 28 per cent, whereas the currently exempted categories, including health care and education, would continue to be out of the tax net, Jaitley announced at Chashme Shahi.
graph Jaitley said: “Although the GST rate of 18 per cent on services is higher than the 15 per cent existing rate, the actual incidence of tax would be lower as service providers would get credit for the taxes paid on the goods used for the provision of services.”
“After a long debate, the GST rates in relation to the services sector have been completely adopted in today’s meeting. Most of the services exempted at present, will be grandfathered and will continue to be out of the GST,” said Jaitley while briefing the media surrounded by lush green mountains, a thick cover of trees and the tightened security of J&K Police, the BSF and the CRPF.
Grandfathering of these services essentially means that the Council may decide to impose tax on these sometime in future.
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