Revenue dept obtains FM’s approval for negative list on services

26 Dec 2011 Evaluate

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has authorized the revenue department to go ahead with the negative list on services so that it could be implemented from the next financial year. The list is important to roll-out a standardized goods and services tax regime that the government is intending to introduce soon.

In the negative list, almost all services except a select few would come under the tax net. Currently, 117 services are taxed at a rate of 10%. Service taxes are a high-growth revenue source for the government in a country where services account for more than half of the GDP.

Last month, the government issued a revised draft of the negative list of services and asked for feedback from various stakeholders by December 15. The first draft was released in August this year. According to a finance ministry official, once the shift from the current practice of taxing services on a selective basis (positive list-based) to the negative list is implemented, tax revenue would pick up by 20%.

As per the revised paper, 22 categories of services would figure in the negative list. The services added to the proposed negative list in the new draft compared to the previous one include some services relating to agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry, services provided by freelance journalists, government news agencies and advertisements in media other than newspapers and TV. In the first draft, 27 services were kept outside the tax net.

Moreover, government services would be exempt. However those where they compete with the private sector would not be exempted. Therefore, insurance services, port and airport services, posts, trade fairs and exhibitions, business promotion services, construction/work contract, renting of immovable property, security services etc. would be taxed.

In the revised paper, the central board of excise and customs, the indirect taxes wing of the revenue department, also proposed to broaden the exemption for services relating to infrastructure projects which are meant for ‘larger public good’. If put into practice the list would benefit the construction industry where input tax credit is not offered in all cases.

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