Need to see if GST will become seemless for production and investment decision-making: Shome

22 Mar 2013 Evaluate

As per the Union Finance Ministry advisor Parthasarathi Shome, there is no need to move from the current value added tax (VAT) regime prevailing in states to the proposed unified GST regime unless the distortions in indirect taxation for industry and commerce are reduced. While, addressing an event with industry on the GST, Shome said ‘what we need to see at the bottom-line is whether the new tax is going to become seamless for production decision-making, investment decision-making, getting input tax credit in the right manner, minimising wrong accumulation of input tax credit, facilitating inter-State trade and getting refunds from one State to the other’.

By adding further, he said that if the distortions in the indirect taxes are smoothened out then the decision-making in productive sector would become better and as a result, production would increase and eventually helping the GDP to rise. The onus would be on the productive sector and the private sector to analyse the impact of the GST in day-to-day decision-making issues and then making an investment despite having an indirect tax.

Dr. Shome said that the GST implementation is a step in the positive direction and more dialogues are expected between the Centre and States in the coming months on some issues related to Goods and Services Tax (GST). Shome did not fix a timeline for introduction of GST. 

Regarding the Direct Taxes Code (DTC), Shome said the proposed new legislation is a fundamental churning of the income tax law and it is interested to see whether it will able to come up with a real informed income tax or not. As part of structural reforms, there is some exercise going on reassessment of large taxpayer units to see what more improvements could be done in GST format. “We cannot just stick with GST and DTC but all kinds of structural administrative reforms at the field level are important because they are the real pillars supporting the overall major fundamental changes like GST and DTC” he said.

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