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The
proposed indirect tax regime that will replace most of
the indirect tax levied by the Centre like excise and
service tax and subsume state-levied taxes like VAT and
octroi, is scheduled to be introduced by April 1, 2010.
The joint working group on GST, comprising officials
from the Finance Ministry, Commissioners of commercial
taxes in states and other officials met today on the
subject.
The group will putforth its recommendations to the
finance Minister at the meeting tomorrow.
Although the rates and the fine contours of the the new
tax regime are yet to be finalised, one thing is known
that there will be a dual structure -- one at the Centre
and another at the States.
At the state level, there will be one standard rate, a
lower rate for essential items and a rate for precious
metals.
However, some states have reservations on doing away
with the local taxes as that could impact their
financial autonomy.
Also, there is a dearth of data on the services sector
with the states which is causing problems in fixing the
rates for services.
Source
:
Business Standard, dated 07/10/2009
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