GST Rates for Commodities will be decided on 18th May 2017

M Vinod Kumar, Chief Commissioner of Central Excise stated that the Goods and Service Tax (GST Council) will decide on applicable tax rates for commodities on 18th May. While addressing a workshop GST organised by the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC), Kumar said, “In all probability, we will freeze the allocation of commodities into the agreed tax rates under the GST, which is widely expected to be rolled out post-July 2017.”

Commodities Allocation

While tax slab rates have been declared, allocation of commodities will be completed shortly. While on another hand, the declaration of commodity- wise allocation will be announced very soon.

“General expectation is that rates are likely to be fixed as close to the existing aggregate incidence of tax for goods and services. There will also be a cess on sin goods and services which will be imposed on the small set of identified commodities.”

Trial Run Initiated

Kumar stated that, On the preparedness of GSTN From 1st May the Government has started the GSTN on trial basis. He also stated that “a few thousand GSTN trial runs and that is the reason why the registration for the GSTN system has been put on hold for a short period.”

Kumar said “If GSTN is not in place and adequately tested, smooth integration of the GST law may be very difficult. Substantial migration and integration work has already been completed.”

Security Aspects

It was also mentioned that in the GST framework, invoice matching concept will be applicable and it will do a major task for the tax economy. The significant feature will be matching the invoice of the supplier and the dealer to ascertain the input tax credit. The tool will be handy for government to track any fake ITC claim which in turn will save the inn-appropriate funding of the tax evasion. Also it is acknowledged that, GSTN number will be of 15 digit and will be unique from its own origination. By the way of GSTN number, it will fetch the details of state and situation of the taxpayer immediately.