Confident of the rollout of Goods and Services Tax from April 1, 2017 despite a logjam in the Council on the issue of dual control, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) on Thursday said it has started the exercise of slotting the goods in the four tax slabs.
"We have started the exercise of putting goods into various tax slabs. It will be shared with the (GST) Council," CBEC Chairman Najib Shah said here at the National Conference on GST organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).
"I think the deadline of April 1, 2017, will still be met. These (dual control) are issues that are getting addressed and will get resolved," he said.
He said the issue of dual control or cross empowerment -- which deals with who will assess the taxpayers, the Centre or states -- should not have taken as much time with the Council as it has.
"It ought not have taken as much time as it has. The dual control should not lead to a duel," he added.
The government is very clear on a single administration dealing with an assessee, Shah said.
Confident that these issues will get resolved, he said: "We are hoping to table the GST laws in the current Parliament session."
"I don't know what route the political circles will take. But GST is a reality."
Ruling out a single rate for the GST, Shah said that the GST rate structure may however be reviewed in wake of demonetisation.
"How can we have one rate for edible oil and cars, flour and computers. The multiplicity of rate is a compulsion both economic and political," he said.
"GST rate structure may be reviewed in wake of demonetisation; whether rate change possible shall be known with time. The rates are not cast in stone," he added.
The central and state governments have to collect Rs 8 lakh plus crore of revenue which they are currently getting from indirect taxes other than customs. In the course of the GST Council deliberations, compensation at a growth rate of 14 per cent for 5 years for each one of the states has been assumed.
"It's a huge assumption and the burden which central government has cast upon itself," said Shah.
--IANS
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