FinMin invites comments on 3 GST reports by Oct 31

Finance Ministry has invited stakeholder comments on the three reports of the empowered committee of state finance ministers on Goods and Services Tax (GST) by the end of this month.

The three reports of the Empowered Committee, pertains to registration, payment process and refunds in the GST regime.

The reports will be available on the official website mygov.in from tomorrow afternoon.

"Comments and views are invited on these business processes by October 31, 2015," a Finance Ministry 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, it added.

"The government intends to introduce the GST in the country at the earliest," the statement added.

GST seeks to subsume many indirect taxes at the Central and state-level.

The proposed GST envisages taxation of the same taxable event, i.e., supply of goods and services, simultaneously by both the Centre and the states.

The reports to be put up on mygov.In have recommended that the RBI's core banking solution e-Kuber be used for consolidating and settlement of accounts under the GST system.

It has also suggested that Internet banking, over the counter payment and NEFT and RTGS should be extensively used to facilitate payments under GST.

Although the government had planned to roll out the GST, which is touted as the most comprehensive indirect tax reform since Independence, from April 1, it seems difficult in view as the Constitution Amendment Bill is stuck in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA does not have a majority.

The government, however, is going ahead with the preparatory work necessary for smooth implementation of the GST, which will subsume various levies like excise, service tax, sales tax, octroi, etc, and will ensure a single indirect tax regime for the entire country.

On Procedure for obtaining registration, the Empowered Committee said "all the taxable persons shall interact with tax authorities through a common portal called GST Common Portal that would be set up by Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN)".

The report pertaining to refund process lists down situations where refunds would arise such as excess payment by inadvertence, export of goods/services, provisional assessment finalisation, credit accumulation and year-end/volume based incentives through credit notes.

It said that while state tax authorities will deal with SGST refund, Central tax authorities will deal with CGST and iGST refund.