NEW DELHI: Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on Tuesday cautioned industry not to be complacent about preparing for the goods and services tax (GST) thinking its rollout would be delayed. He said implementation is on schedule.
His comments assume significance as they come in the backdrop of reports in a section of media that the government is open to postponing the GST rollout to September.
Speaking to reporters at a GST Conclave here on Tuesday, Adhia also sought to dispel concerns that the prices of essential commodities would go up in the GST regime.
“There could be a marginal increase of tax for some services, but about 60 per cent of the income of the Centre and States comes from items that attract 14 per cent value added tax and 12.5 per cent excise duty.”
He said the tax on such items is likely to decrease under GST, as it will reduce the cascading of taxes and help ease inflation.
Adhia noted that Telangana and Bihar have already passed the State GST (SGST) Bill in their respective state legislatures and Rajasthan is scheduled to pass it on Wednesday. At least 14 states are likely to pass the SGST Bills by mid of May and by May 31, all state legislatures will pass the bill, Adhia said.
Giving a clear message to business houses, the revenue secretary said they will have to register for GST compliance and pay taxes as each of them will be assigned a ‘compliance rating’ based on their timely deposit of taxes, filing tax returns in the new system.
The rating will allow traders to decide if they wish to do business based on credibility rating.
The rating will be uploaded on GST Network (GSTN) is the firm which is building the IT backbone of GST.
“We will start with by putting everyone at equal level, but if a taxpayer is non-compliant, then only will your rating go down,” GSTN CEO Prakash Kumar said.