New Delhi: The government may not have come out clearly on introduction of the proposed indirect tax structure GST but the lack of preparedness for the new tax regime hints at a possible delay by up to a year.
Implementation of the new tax regime would require
constitutional amendments for empowering states for levy of
service tax, GST on imports and others-- the draft bill for
any of these amendments were not tabled in this session of
Parliament.
Now, Parliament will meet for the budget session in
February when the draft bills for introduction of GST may be
tabled.
The Task force of Thirteenth Finance Commission in its
report on Goods and Services Tax had said, "On account of lack
of adequate preparedness, the implementation of the GST
scheduled for 1st April, 2010 should be postponed by six
months to October 1, 2010."
However, the Empowered Committee of State Finance
Ministers in its draft paper on the GST said the committee
would work with the Centre to implement GST with effect from
April 1, 2010.
Earlier this month, Bihar Finance Minister Sushil Modi
said that the introduction of GST should be delayed by a year
as there is not enough preparedness to implement it on the
scheduled date.
Though, tax experts feel that GST can be rolled out in
six months time.
"I do not think implementing it in October would be
difficult. It can be done at that time but I do not think its
is possible to implement it by April 1 next year," financial
consultancy KPMG Executive Director Indirect Tax Pratik Jain
said.
The Finance Commission, in its report had said that the
government should announce the timeline of various activities
for introduction of GST simultaneously with the announcement
for postponement.
GST, the proposed indirect tax structure aims to do away
with most of the indirect taxes levied at the Central level
like excise and service tax and also at the state's behest
like VAT and octroi.
PTI
First Published: Friday, December 25, 2009, 14:57