GST – Parliamentary Committee’s Report on Constitution Amendment – Salient features

1. The Constitution (One Hundred and Fifteenth Amendment) Bill, 2011, which has been referred to the Standing Committee on Finance of Parliament for detailed examination and Report seeks to bring fundamental systemic reforms in the indirect taxes dispensation prevailing in the country by integrating and harmonizing the tax structure across the country in the form of Goods and Services Tax (GST). The proposed amendments in the Constitution are targeted to achieve the objective of conferring simultaneous power on Parliament and State legislatures to make laws for levying GST simultaneously on every transaction of supply and goods & services. In addition, the proposed amendments would allow subsuming of a number of indirect taxes presently being levied by Central & State Governments into GST and thus will remove cascading of taxes and provide a common national market for goods and services. Before discussing at length the various issues emanating from the provisions of the Constitution (One Hundred and Fifteenth Amendment) Bill, 2011, it would be useful to have a brief overview of the proposed amendment Bill.

I.          GST Design

2. GST is recognized internationally as a destination based consumption tax which is least distortionary. The broad objectives of introducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India are to expand the tax base through wider coverage of economic activities and reduction in exemptions; mitigate cascading and double taxation and enable better compliance through the lowering of overall tax burden on goods and services. By removing hidden or embedded taxes, it would improve the competitiveness of domestic industry vis-à-vis imports and in international markets. By harmonizing the tax structure across States, this reform would also lead to the development of a common national market for goods and services.

3. The indirect tax system in the country has been going through a series of reforms over the last two decades. At the Central level, a Value Added Tax called, CENVAT, providing credit of tax paid on inputs and capital goods was introduced upto the manufacturing stage. Subsequently, in 1994, a tax on services (commonly known as Service Tax) was introduced by the Centre. The Service Tax has grown consistently in scope to cover more services and now applies to about 115 service categories with commensurate growth in revenue from this tax. In 2004, the input tax credit scheme for CENVAT and Service Tax was merged to permit cross flow of credit across these taxes. As for the States, they have switched over from a multiple point Sales tax to a Value Added Tax (VAT) covering all transactions of sale of goods within the State up to the retail stage in a phased manner starting from 2005-06.

4. Despite these measures, goods and services continue to be burdened with multiple indirect taxes at different stages of the value chain with significant tax cascading under the present indirect tax regime. The important reasons for this are as under:a)             In respect of taxation of goods, CENVAT is confined to the ³PDRufIGturiRg^Ul Lta ill VRJl JHilL l RQtl ilxtilRJl Vo l Qill JiLI HbutiHRl GhaiR l beyond the factory gate. As such, CENVAT paid on goods cannot be neutralized against State VAT payable on subsequent sale of goods. This is true both for CENVAT collected on domestically produced goods as well as that collected as additional duty of customs on imported goods.

b)            CENVAT is itself made up of several components in the nature of cesses and surcharges such as the National Calamity Contingency Duty (NCCD), education and secondary and higher education cess, additional duty of excise on tobacco and tobacco products etc. This multiplicity of duties complicates the tax structure and often obstructs the smooth flow of tax credit.

c)              While input tax credit of CENVAT or additional duty of customs paid on goods is available to service providers paying Service Tax, they are unable to neutralize the State VAT or other State taxes paid on their purchase of goods.

d)             State VAT is payable on the value of goods inclusive of CENVAT paid at the manufacturing stage so that the VAT liability of a dealer gets inflated by this component without compensatory set-off.

e)             Inter-State sale of goods attracts the Central Sales Tax (CST) levied by the Centre and collected by the States. This is an origin-based tax and cannot be set-off against VAT in many situations.

f)             State VAT and CST do not directly apply to the import of goods on which special additional duties of customs are levied at a uniform rate of 4% by the Centre. Input tax credit of these duties is available only to those manufacturing excisable goods. Other importers have to claim refund of this duty as and when they pay VAT on subsequent sales.

g)             VAT dealers are unable to set-off any Service Tax that they may have paid on their procurement of taxable input services.

h) State Governments also levy and collect a variety of other indirect taxes such as luxury tax, entertainment tax, entry tax etc. for which no set-off is available.

5. Introduction of GST is a logical culmination of the tax reform process involving the switch over to CENVAT; levy of service tax and the transition from sales tax to state VAT. By replacing a large number of taxes levied both by the Centre and the States, GST would integrate the tax base and allow seamless flow of input tax credit across the value chain of goods and services. This would eliminate multiplicity of taxes, cascading of taxes and overall simplification of indirect taxation regime. Seamless input tax credit chain will lead to reduced cost of goods and services. As the credit chain will function only if all the transactions are recorded, GST environment would lead to improved disclosure of economic transactions which may have a positive impact on direct tax collections also.

6. It is in the context of India‘s federal structure that a dual GST, wherein both the Centre and the States concurrently levy and collect the tax, has been envisaged. It would be mutually beneficial to both by allowing an expansion of their respective fiscal space; and better tax compliance.

7. Internationally, comprehensive Goods & Services tax has already been introduced in more than 100 countries across the world. The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers (EC) has visited and studied the best practices of many countries like Australia, Brazil, etc. which has similar political structure as that of India. At the same time, the Indian model would have to be unique owing to the quasi-federal nature of its polity.

8. Under the GST regime, both the Centre and the State would have the powers to tax the ^―supply^‖ of goods aniservices right from their primary stage to final consumption. Such a regime with IGST on inter-state supplies would result in establishing a seamless Input Tax Credit (ITC) chain from the primary to the tertiary stage. Such seamless credit chain and the removal of differential in tax rates on inter-state and intra-state transactions are likely to lower costs for the consumers and will result in better tax compliance.

9. In addition since all the dealers will be given PAN based registration number under GST regime and will be required to file returns on a common portal, more robust information sharing and analysis between the Centre and the States as also amongst States would be feasible. This will definitely help in checking evasion and boost revenues of the Centre as well as States since currently, there is no systematic sharing of information between Central and State tax administrations allowing sufficient scope for wrong reporting by dealers and thus the tax evasion. Under the existing system, Centre and States have been granting relief from payment of tax to promote investments. This leads to a lot of inefficiency in the taxation system. It is expected that in Centre as well as States will not grant such tax relief in the GST regime to make taxation system more efficient.

10.      The benefits of GST can be summarized as under :

For business and industry

• Easy compliance
• Removal of cascading
• Improved competitiveness

For Central and State Governments

• Simple and easy to administer
• Better controls on leakage
• Consolidation of tax base
• Higher revenue efficiency

For the consumer

• Single and Transparent tax proportionate to the value of goods and services

• Reduction of prices

11. GST, by its design, encourages the system to be transparent. There is an inbuilt system of Input Tax Credit i.e. the tax paid at earlier stage of the production distribution chain will be set off at the final stage of sale of goods and services. Also the rate arbitrage between the inter-state and intra-state supplies will get eliminated. This is because it is proposed to equalize the total rate of tax applicable to intra- and inter-state supplies unlike the present regime where the CST rate is 2% while the normal VAT rate is either 5% or 12.5%. Thus it is expected that tax evasion would be largely reduced. The Centre and States today fix rate of tax and grant exemptions many times not in sync with each other. States also try to compete with each other to attract investment etc. and offer reduced rate of tax on select goods, which leads to tax rate war between States and ultimately hurts them. The affected State today has no forum to go to get its grievance redressed. The Bill proposes to set up GST council which after discussion will recommend rate of tax etc. to Centre as well as States. Centre and States will be expected to follow the recommendations of the GST Council and State and Centre will have a forum in the form of GST Dispute Settlement Authority for seeking redressal of grievances related to loss of revenue because of such deviating action of the other State which may have affected their revenue. This will bring transparency, accountability and efficiency in the tax administration and reduce the arbitrage opportunities available to tax avoidance and evasion.

Download The Constitution (One Hundred Fifteenth Amendment) Bill, 2011, Seventy Third Report as presented in Lok Sabha on 7 August, 2013