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NEW DELHI: The goods and services tax (GST) Council on Wednesday fixed a uniform tax rate of 28 percent on both state and private lottery which will come into effect from March 2020. At present, lotteries run by state governments attract 12 percent GST while those authorized by them and sold outside the state are taxed at 28 percent. The council also rationalized tax rate on woven and non-woven bags to 18 percent, he said, adding exemption has been given on long-term lease for industrial plots to facilitate setting up of industrial parks.
The panel also relaxed levy of penalty for non-filing of GSTR-1 from July 2017. The GST Council headed by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had sought suggestions from states on review of GST and compensation cess rates on various items, rate calibrations for addressing the inverted duty structure, compliance measures other than those currently under implementation to augment revenue. In a letter to Sitharaman, West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra said states have received a letter from the GST Council wherein suggestions have been sought on review of items currently under an exemption for shoring up GST revenues.
"This is indeed alarming. We should not in any way tinker with the rate structure or impose any new cess at a time when the industry and consumers are going through the most distressing times with 'stagflation' knocking at our door (stagnation accompanied by growing inflation)," Mitra said. Many economists have expressed fear of India getting into a slow growth high inflation or stagflation mode.
Facing heat over delay in payment of GST compensation, the government released Rs 35,298 crore to states to make up for the loss of revenue due to the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). When GST was rolled out on July 1, 2017, states were through legislation promised to be compensated for the loss of revenue as not just their taxes such as VAT were being subsumed in the new levy but also their right to levy taxes was being snatched.
The compensation amount was fixed at 14 percent on top of revenue in the base year of 2016-17. The corpus for paying compensation was collected by levying a cess on top of GST rates on tobacco products, cigarettes, aerated water, automobiles, and coal.
The central GST collection fell short of the Budget Estimate by nearly 40 percent during the April-November period of 2019-20, according to government data. The actual CGST collection during April-November stood at Rs 3,28,365 crore, while the Budget Estimate was Rs 5,26,000 crore for these months. According to sources, the finance ministry has set an Rs 1.1 lakh crore monthly GST collection target for the remaining four months of the 2019-20 financial year.
Source: Times of india
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