Most Central Excise, Tax Assesees Have Migrated To GSTN: CBEC Chief
The next GST Council meeting will also assess the preparedness of the GSTN.
There are as many as 84 percent central excise tax and 87 percent state input tax assessess who have migrated to the Goods and Services Tax Network (GST) till April 30 and remaining are expected to move to it once the window opens again, Central Board of Excise and Customs Chairman Vanaja Sarna told BloombergQuint in an interview.
The next GST Council meeting will also assess the preparedness of the GSTN, which is setting up a national information technology (IT) network to integrate state and central taxes to unify India into a one-nation, one tax regime, she said at the sidelines of the two-day GST Council meeting which concluded in Srinagar on Friday.
The Council in the aegis of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has fixed rates for as many as 1,211 items under four slabs of 5 percent, 12 percent, 18 percent and a luxury rate of 28 percent. On the services front, healthcare and education sectors have been exempted, along with hotels with tariff under Rs 1,000 per night.
Here are the edited excerpts of the interview.
Now that the GST rates have now been finalised, is the stage set for a July 1 rollout or are there more important factors that need to be taken care of?
As you heard the Honourable Finance Minister speaking, this is the major part which has been done. For the CBEC, the readiness is already there. On June 3, when we have the next meeting, there is also going to be an explanation on the preparedness of the GSTN. So, I think on all fronts the government is ready.
The industry was talking about rates being made available in the public domain before the GST rollout. Do you think this would stop sales in the market?
No, on the contrary, now that people are aware of the rates...when you didn’t disclose the rates, people were still wondering. Now that the rates have been disclosed, it makes business planning and pricing better and easier. I think that is what is going to happen now. It is going to be easier for the business person to look at the future.
What can be expected on goods like gold, cigarettes, beedis whose rates are yet to be decided and when is a decision likely?
As the Honourable Finance Minister has said that there were a few items that were left, some of those what you have mentioned, those will be taken up at the next meeting on June 3 and that the Council will have to decide. The fitment committee has already made certain recommendations and it has to come before the Council.
Speaking about telecom sector specifically, the current rate was around 15 percent but the new rate which has been decided is 18 percent. Although, input tax credit will be given for it. Is there still scope of telecom services getting expensive?
I don’t think so. If you have heard honourable Finance Minister that the input tax credit will now be available. I think it is for the service providers to relook at their cost factor and to decide if they are going to pass it on to the consumer.
In terms of IT preparedness, where are we right now and you have recently extended the date for migration. How many service tax assesses have already moved to the GSTN platform?
Till it closed which was on April 30, the migration was about 84 percent and 87 percent in central excise and service tax. The remaining is still to be done so the window will open again. I can’t put a figure to that right now because the migration was happening both on the VAT front and on the central excise front. There are some where the migration has taken place on the state front which we have to take into account as well. Once the window opens again - which will happen shortly because the GSTN was doing some beta testing on their systems- the remnants will automatically migrate.
What could the rate of packaged goods and branded products?
That has been covered yesterday (Thursday). As far as food products were concerned, though it was exempted but packaged and branded have been kept at five percent.