Uttarakhand to Receive Benefits Under GST Regime

GST has been coming on its way towards the Indian national taxation scheme and would find its position well settled next financial year and the preparations are heavily under work. Dr Sunil Kumar Batra, Head of Economics department, Shravan Nath Math Jawaharlal Nehru College, told in a conversations that, “The Goods and Services Tax (GST) that the Central government is set to implement from April 1, 2017, will benefit traders and end consumers both in plains and hill districts of Uttarakhand.”

He also asserted some of the points in favor like, as there are multiple rate slabs for consumer goods in plain and hill districts but after the implementation of GST the rate of tax would be neutral for consumer goods hence improving the condition of price variation and its impact on the state.

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He also said that “The GST will incorporate or subsume various taxes such as sales, excise, value added tax, countervailing duty etc in itself, which will benefit consumers too. The multiple tax system will pave the way for a single GST system and both people and traders will benefit. Trading will be smoother for traders and consumers will get relief from multiple taxes levied at various places and phases.”

Uttrakhand is known for its valuable resources like environmental, hydroelectric, energy and herbal beneficiary and has a lot of chances to get Grant from the government after the application of GST. Mr. Batra said that “state governments were entitled to compensation for revenue loss if suffered during the first five years of the implementation of the GST. This should also alleviate any concern, whatsoever, of the Uttarakhand government as far as the GST was concerned.”

There was recently Rs. 100 crore of income discovered from Uttarakhand under the Income Declaration Scheme meanwhile, people having unaccounted money should have utilized the opportunity as on more than Rs 10 lakh annual income 30 per cent income tax is levied, while in this scheme 45 per cent tax was to be payable to the government.

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Dr. Sunil Kumar Batra explained in detail that, “Hence persons who avail of the scheme benefit will be paying only 15 per cent of additional tax to the Union government under this Income Declaration Scheme. The tax and penalty accrued to the government will be used for development only. Hence through this scheme, while one made his accounted money legal, he also contributed to the development cause. Last time a similar scheme was launched way back in 1997. Hence now no one knows when it will be launched again, but this step shows the concerns of the Union government about its approach towards black money.”