GST Council postpones tax rate decision to November

The proposal for levying a cess over and above the tax on demerit goods was put forward to gather funds to compensate states for losing revenue after the implementation of GST. There was a virtual consensus among states regarding its imposition, however, industry and tax experts are opposing it as it is against the concept of one-nation, one-tax, according to a media agency.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley believes that the discussion about slab being least is a good discussion, but it is not appropriate to levy high tax in order to keep the slab low. He said that the effort will be to fit the taxpayer in a GST tax bracket that is closest to what he is currently paying.

Jaitley also said that states and the Centre converged towards a consensus for sourcing funds for state compensations.

The earlier decision of giving sole administrative control to states over assessees that have an annual turnover of Rs 1.5 crore and both the states and the Centre having dual control over assessees with a turnover of more than that, will also be rediscussed.

Additionally, the four-slab structure of 6, 12, 18 and 26 per cent, with the lowest tariff for essential items and the highest one for demerit goods was considered feasible, but the decision on this has also been postponed to the next meeting.

The third day of the meeting that was supposed to take place today has been called off. The next meeting will take place on November 3-4, 2016. (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India