The ministerial panel to decide on lowering goods and services tax (GST) on health and life insurance premiums will have its first meeting on October 19, officials said. Currently, 18 per cent GST is levied on insurance premiums and there have been demands to either exempt or reduce the tax. The GST Council in its meeting earlier this month decided to set up a 13-member GoM to decide on tax on health and life insurance premiums. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary is the convenor of the GoM. The panel includes ministers from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Meghalaya, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. The GoM has been mandated to submit its report to the Council by October-end. A final call by the council on taxation of insurance premiums is likely to be taken in the next meeting in November, based on the GoM report. "The GoM on GST on insurance will meet on October 19 in Delhi," the official said. The terms of re
The outcome of the rate rationalisation discussions will be crucial in shaping the agenda for the upcoming 55th GST Council meeting, expected in November
Finance ministry may declare notices null and void or reduce tax liability
The design architecture for implementing GST e-invoicing for retailers is mostly ready and being vetted by industry experts, GST Network CEO Manish Kumar Sinha said on Tuesday. E-invoicing is already present in the B2B sector. The GST Council, in its meeting earlier this month, decided to extend e-invoice to the B2C sector on a pilot basis. Sinha said the GST department is currently in discussion with the industry for the issuance of electronic invoices for every B2C transaction. "Initially, we will do a pilot project. The design of the architecture is mostly done, and we are getting it vetted by some of the best people we have in the industry. After that, we will release a document on how to go about it," Sinha said at an Assocham event here. The threshold for businesses that would be required to issue e-invoices is in the process of being decided. "We have to give time to the industry, particularly, small mom-and-pop stores. What we want to get right is the technology. Large ...
Tax officers have detected around 10,700 fake registrations under the GST, involving evasion of Rs 10,179 crore in the ongoing all-India drive against fake companies set up to defraud the exchequer, a senior official said on Tuesday. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) member Shashank Priya said Aadhaar authentication of GST registration is already in place in 12 states and by October 4, another four states would join. Eventually, 20 states, including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, will start Aadhaar authentication. Speaking at an Assocham event, Shashank Priya also said that in future, the tax authorities may also put certain restrictions on new taxpayers based on their risk profile. "How many invoices they can issue in a month, we may also put some restriction on that in the future... We feel very pained at the misuse of the system. We have to use all methods that are at our command to ensure that those are stopped," he ...
Meeting favours States that declare tourism as infra to facilitate exemptions
The recommendations from this panel will serve as the foundation for a report to be presented at the 55th GST Council meeting in November
The ministerial panel on GST rate rationalisation will meet on September 25 and is expected to discuss tweaking of tax slabs and rates. "The meeting of the GoM on rate rationalisation is scheduled for September 25 in Goa," an official told PTI. The six-member Group of Minister (GoM) under Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, last met on August 22 and had submitted a status report to the GST Council on September 9. During the August meeting, the panel had tasked the fitment committee comprising tax officers from the Centre and states to analyse the implication of tax rate change on some items and gather more data. Currently, goods and services tax (GST) is a four-tier tax structure with slabs at 5, 12, 18, and 28 per cent. Under GST, essential items are either exempted or taxed at the lowest slab, while luxury and demerit items attract the highest slab. Luxury and sin goods attract cess on top of the highest 28 per cent slab. There have been talks of merging the 12 and 18
Executives discussed range of issues with ministers at World Food India event
Seeking to promote the food processing sector, the Centre on Thursday held consultation with more than 100 senior executives of food companies to understand the problems faced by them related to ease of doing business, imports, GST rates and misconceptions about processed food items. During the meeting, food companies demanded reduction in GST rates of many food items. A high-level CEO roundtable, under the co-chairpersonship of Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Food Processing Industries Minister Chirag Paswan, was organized as part of World Food India 2024 event being held during September 19-22 in the national capital. It laid "focus on promoting investment and enhancing Ease of Doing Business and was attended by over 100 CXOs," an official statement said. Speaking on the sidelines of this meeting, Paswan said, "the objective of this CEO roundtable was to provide a platform to industry representatives of food companies to put forward their concerns and suggestions ..
SpiceJet, which has statutory dues of more than Rs 601 crore, has received a good response for its Rs 3,000 crore-worth sale of shares to qualified institutional buyers. Operating with a reduced fleet as well as facing financial and legal headwinds, the carrier is looking to raise funds. Sources in the know on Wednesday said the qualified institutional placement has been oversubscribed, with participation from various investors, including family offices and institutional funds. Some of the investors include family offices of Madhu Kela, Akash Bhanshali, Sanjay Dangi, Rohit Kothari, and Bandhan Bank, the sources said. There was no official comment from the airline. "Due to our financial constraints, our company has not been able to fulfil the statutory liabilities accruing on us on a month to month basis," the airline said in the preliminary placement document related to raising Rs 3,000 crore. As per the document, the airline has not made provident fund payments to the tune of ov
Online food delivery aggregator Zomato on Wednesday said it has received a GST demand order along with interest and penalty amounting to Rs 17.7 crore from the Assistant Commissioner of Revenue, West Bengal. The demand order, received by the company on Tuesday, is with respect to non- payment of GST on delivery charges and interest, penalty thereon. "We believe that we have a strong case on merits and the Company will be filing an appeal against the order before the appropriate authority," Zomato said in a regulatory filing. The order is for the period April 2021 to March 2022 passed by Assistant Commissioner of Revenue, Government of West Bengal confirming demand of GST of Rs 11,12,79,712 with interest of Rs 5,46,81,021 and penalty of Rs 1,11,27,971. "The Company in its response to the show cause notice had clarified on the issue along with relevant documents and judicial precedents, which appears to not have been appreciated by the authorities while passing the order," Zomato ...
Legal experts told Business Standard that evasion of GST is a serious offence since it is a tax already collected from the customer but not paid
The Gujarat High Court has quashed a show cause notice sent by the GST authorities to a company asking it to pay 18 per cent tax on unfried or uncooked extruded snack pellets
An audit system has great advantages over routine tax return verification but requires greater skills
India should come out with a national bio-plastics policy with fiscal incentives like capital subsidy as well as government support for research & development, according to a report. The report titled Incentivising Bioplastics, a Biopolymer' by EY and ASSOCHAM outlines a strategic vision for transforming India's bio-plastics industry through targeted government interventions and regulatory changes along with educational campaigns and leveraging India's agricultural strengths to enhance sustainability and environmental performance. To establish India as a premier hub for production of bio-plastics, the report calls for comprehensive National Bio-Plastics Policy in India. It suggested fiscal incentives like capital subsidies of up to 50 per cent on eligible capital investments over five years to encourage the development of bioplastics manufacturing and infrastructure. The report also called for regulatory framework mandating use of bio-plastics, implementing QCOs (quality control ..
GST investigation arm DGGI has suggested reciprocal arrangements with foreign governments for information sharing and enforcement measures as well as blocking of websites to prevent tax evasion in OIDAR services like e-gaming, online education and advertisement. The move has been necessitated as it has come to DGGI's notice that there are entities, including online casinos that are based out of tax havens and also those which operate through offshore VPNs and cloud-based platforms. These entities are non-cooperative and appear to intentionally avoid tax compliance, and hence an information exchange with global law enforcement agencies would help crack down on any evasion. Online Information and Database Access or Retrieval (OIDAR) services are those which are delivered over the internet or electronic network and whose supply is essentially impossible without Information Technology. It includes a wide array of services viz cloud services, digital content, online gaming, online ...
In terms of sectors, online money gaming was followed by the BFSI sector, which saw Rs 18,961 crore evaded in 171 cases
The average systemic liquidity surplus in August stood at Rs 1.49 trillion, up from Rs 1.02 trillion in July. Over the past 12 months, the average liquidity surplus was Rs 0.49 trillion
Sreenivasan raised concerns about the different GST rates for sweets, savouries, and bakery products during an interaction of Sitharaman with MSMEs and Chamber of Commerce in Coimbatore