Consumers will have to pay more for sugar and textiles as States on Friday decided to impose four-five per cent value added tax (VAT) on sugar and textiles from the beginning of next fiscal. A move that will shore up their state governments revenue, but also stoke inflationary pressures.

Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on GST, under its new chief Sushil Modi, will meet on August 19 to discuss various issues related with the roll out of the ambitious indirect tax regime.

The government will come out with a draft ‘negative list’ for service tax in two weeks, meaning services which are not mentioned in it would be taxed under the proposed GST regime. The draft paper (on negative list of services) is nearly ready and you should see this paper in two weeks, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, V K Garg, told PTI.

The introduction of big-ticket tax reforms through the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime seems unlikely from next April with the BJP-ruled states today stating that they would not like to be reduced to ‘municipality or corporations. The kind of draft that they [central government] have presented…I do not think it could be passed. Which state will agree to become a municipality or corporation? To hand over all the powers to the Centre and then beg before it for money is against the spirit of the Sarkaria Commission report, Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Raghavji told reporters here.

The Federation of Indian Exports Organisations (FIEO) today suggested that the 14-year-old Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) scheme be extended till the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is introduced in the country. The DEPB scheme should continue till GST is introduced as it will not possible to fix the drawback rates for all the products for which DEPB rates exist in the short span of three months, FIEO President Ramu S Deora said in press statement.

With the Left losing power in West Bengal, the Empowered Group of State Finance Ministers, which is currently engaged in building a consensus on the GST, will have to find a replacement for Asim Dasgupta who has been heading the body since its inception. As West Bengal Finance Minister, Mr. Dasgupta was involved with the Empowered Group for more than a decade. Earlier, he was the convenor of the VAT panel and played a key role in implementing the new tax regime.

A Ficci Committee recently said it will suggest ideas to the aviation industry on how the proposed Goods & Services Tax (GST) would affect them, along with other recommendations to give the sector a boost. The Ficci Civil Aviation Committee has also set for itself a wide-ranging agenda to give the civil aviation industry a fillip and make air travel safer, secure, cheaper and hassle-free.

Ministry of Finance has initiated a public debate on the issue of a negative list for taxation of services as announced by the Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget 2011. The text of the speech is as below-Many experts have argued that it will be desirable to tax services based on a small negative list, so that many untapped sectors are brought into the tax net. Such an approach will be very conducive for a nationwide GST. I propose to initiate an informed public debate on the subject to help us finalise the approach to GST.

Finance Ministry will soon come out with a discussion paper on service tax to increase its contribution to the overall tax kitty and align it with the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST). “The Finance Ministry is working on a discussion paper on taxation of services to get opinion and feedback before moving to GST,” a source told PTI.

Constitution (One Hundred and Fifteenth Amendment), Bill, 2011 (GST Bill) as introduced in the Parliament on 22 March 2011, deals with key transaction taxes in India. The proposed GST Bill, inter alia seeks to introduce articles effecting the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the introduction of the GST Council. As per the existing structure of indirect taxation, the Parliament has the power to make laws on the manufacture of goods and the provision of services (Union List) while the State Legislatures have the power to make laws on the sale and purchase of goods within their respective states (State List). The Parliament has retained the exclusivity to make laws pertaining to sale of goods in the course of inter-state trade or commerce.