GST not be burden on diamond industry, says minister     

The new goods and service tax (GST) would not be a burden on the diamond industry, Gujarat's industries minister Saurabh Patel said while addressing city's industrialists here on Friday.

However, the general feeling at the meeting was that implementation of the proposed GST will not be possible by April 1, 2010 deadline as there are many legal and other issues that needed to be sorted out.

Saurabh Patel said that this meeting was an exercise towards obtaining feedback from the industry. He added that the second and the third rounds of talks would be taking place.

He said the Kelkar committee had just submitted its report and the indications are of 12 per cent taxation. However, the Centre's share would be 7 per cent and the states would get 5 per cent from the tax, the minister said.

He demanded equal distribution of the tax saying that the states do need money to fight natural calamities and disasters.

The minister asked the hotel industry to be ready to pay more taxes. They would need to pay about 12 per cent tax in place of 4 per cent of luxury and 4 per cent of VAT at present.

At the seminar organised by ASOCHEM and South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SGCCI), Shushil Solanki, commissioner, Central excise informed the industry that GST would replace all the prevailing taxes under different names. He also informed that its implementation would be transparent and a consumer would know what and how much he pays as tax on purchase of a particular item.