GoM meeting on GST reforms next week, tight timeline for Council’s nod | Business News

Sources in the Union Finance Ministry said they were confident the GoM and later the GST Council would find merit in the proposal. Internal calculations by the Department of Revenue in the Finance Ministry suggest that gross GST revenues under the proposed two-pillar rate structure of 5 per cent and 18 per cent will not be lower than what it is now.

Giving a broad idea of the proposal, sources said most of the products and services would be placed in either of the two rates — 5 per cent or 18 per cent. Goods and services used by the common man, or as inputs by farmers, small entrepreneurs and MSMEs, will attract the lower 5 per cent duty. This will reduce the tax burden and is expected to drive consumption.

Most other goods and services will attract the 18 per cent rate, they said.

Sources said that in categorising goods and services as sin and demerit goods and bracketing them under the special rate of 40 per cent, the Department of Revenue has kept in mind the country’s “social ethos”.

At present, there are multiple rate slabs — 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent — and a compensation cess ranging from 1 per cent to 290 per cent that is levied on sin and luxury goods such as cars, refrigerators, air conditioners, pan masala, tobacco and cigarettes.

With loans taken by the Centre to pay compensation cess to states getting recouped and fully repaid by November-December, the cess rates on goods are proposed to be subsumed at this special rate of 40 per cent, sources said. But on some goods like tobacco, the tax incidence is substantially higher than 40 per cent; the government is aware of this, and a separate mechanism may be arrived at in due course, the sources said.

Though there might be an initial impact on revenues, the gains from higher compliance and consumption are expected to offset the losses, they said.

Against a tight timeline, the Centre is learnt to have factored in at least three meetings of the GoM before a final proposal is put before the GST Council, the apex decision-making authority on aspects of the indirect tax regime that was introduced in 2017. Indications are that a rollout is being targeted well ahead of Diwali, since the industry needs time to reconcile to the new rate structure and any disruption ahead of the festive season would need to be avoided.

“In the eight years of GST, there has so far been patchy tinkering of tax rates and slabs. That piecemeal addressing of problems with the tax regime has only complicated the structure further and has ended up with a system that is even more complicated and layered than what was originally envisaged. What we are doing now is a holistic revamp of the tax system with two main rates that will be the two pillars of the tax regime,” said the source

“This structural reform to the tax regime would be accompanied by process reforms that include sorting out registration issues and problems with refunds, and changes in how automated notices are generated to make the interface smoother,” said the source.

As per the proposal, the government is looking to implement pre-filled returns to reduce manual intervention, eliminate mismatches and compliance burden due to multiple notices. Changes will also be made on the refunds front, with the proposal aiming to provide a major portion of refunds within a fixed number of days and enable automated processing of refunds for exporters and those with inverted duty structure.

“In Income Tax, the tax department keeps your TDS (tax deducted at source) amount for one year and pays you the refund after your return filing. But since they pay fast, the taxpayer feels happy about it. In GST, there are refunds that are given three times or four times a year. But people still complain. Now, the crucial difference here is that in the case of GST, the timing is crucial, since it (the refund) is working capital for the enterprise. So, there is a need to make the processes faster. All these will be part of the process reforms,” the source said.

The multiplicity of rates in the current GST regime, officials said, had triggered problems of implementation, confusion of interpretation, and disputes. “So, we wanted to make it simple. Ideally, one tax rate would have been the best solution, but it is not practical. Currently, we have five rates, alongside the exempt items and special rates for items such as jewellery or diamonds. Now we would have two rates (5 per cent and 18 per cent). The third rate (40 per cent) is exceptional. You need to justify why something should go there. Currently, 28 per cent is part of the structure. 40 per cent in the new regime is not. That is the difference,” the source said.

The PM’s announcement has to be seen in the context of it being a proposal for states to consider, the source said. “A reform like this should have everybody on board for it to work best. The GoM on rate rationalisation has been working on this issue for the last four years… The Centre has now taken a leadership position on this, and put this proposal for consideration of the panel,” a source said.

The Centre, sources said, is convinced of the buoyancy from the rate rationalisation taking care of the worries stemming from revenue loss, unlike an earlier attempt in 2018 when rate cuts did not result in revenue gains. “There were problems then (2018), since it (the cut) led to inversions in duty rates in multiple sectors and that led to some amount of gaming of the system by players to avail of input tax credits. Evasion grew… This move to revamp the rate structure (now) is to avoid inversions and inversions-related problems,” an official said.

“Technically, the states should be convinced. Politically, one has to see how they respond,” the official said.