Gst-R

THE good news at the beginning of the financial year is that the vehicle for bringing in GST is moving fast. Reportedly, the Panel set up for sorting out the pending technical issues like Threshold and Dual Control met in Patna, and some tentative views have been taken, which may be placed before the next meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, expected to meet at Mussoorie in the second week of May. The tentative decisions of the Panel are reported to be as follows:

++ The threshold for levying GST by both the Centre and the States would be common at annual turnover of Rs. 25 Lakhs : This is a welcome step. In GST regime, the taxes of both Centre and the States should have a common incidence, common tax-base and hence common threshold. Further, Rs. 25 Lakhs of annual turnover would be a fairly reasonable cut-off, which would keep small traders and service tax payers at the low end out of the GST net.

++ The other welcome decision is that of having a Composition Scheme for dealers with an annual turnover of up to Rs. 60 Lakhs. By opting for a compounded levy, a dealer will be inside the ambit of GST, but he would not be bound by strict GST rules. Thus, another sizeable part of small traders would be outside the ‘rigours' of GST control, leaving the rest of the tax-payers within the ambit of dual control by the Centre and the States.

On the issue of dual control over small taxpayers, views are different. The States are of the view that Centre should not have control over the small tax payers. As for bigger tax payers, the States have no objection to dual control of both the Centre and the States. Three important questions arise here. The first question is, - having accepted the Dual Control model for GST, as evident from the First Discussion Paper of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers released in November 2009, how important and necessary would it be to ensure that the small tax-payers are kept under single control...