Author Name:   navreet

It talks about the Goods and Services Tax and its working.Its benefits and its disadvantages. how it will affect the Constitution and how there would be a need for amendments. And how it will affect the economy...

Goods And Services Tax- Feasibility In India

Goods and Services Tax is a tax on goods and services, which will be levied at each point of sale or provision of service, in which at the time of sale of goods or providing the services the seller or service provider can claim the input credit of tax which he has paid while purchasing the goods or procuring the service.

This is because they include GST in the price of the goods and services they sell and can claim credits for the most GST included in the price of goods and services they buy. The cost of GST is borne by the final consumer, who can’t claim GST credits, i.e. input credit of the tax paid.

In particular, it would replace the following indirect taxes:
At Central level
· Central Excise Duty
· Service Tax
· Additional Excise Duties
· CVD (levied on imports in lieu of Excise duty)
· SAD (levied on imports in lieu of VAT)
· Excise Duty levied on Medicinal and Toiletries preparations,
· Surcharges and cesses
· Central Sales Tax

At State level
· VAT/Sales tax
· Entertainment tax (unless it is levied by the local bodies)
· Luxury Tax
· Taxes on lottery, betting and gambling
· Entry tax not in lieu of Octroi
· Cesses and Surcharges

Salient features of the GST model
· The GST shall have two components: one levied by the Centre (hereinafter referred to as Central GST), and the other levied by the States (hereinafter referred to as State GST). Rates for Central GST and State GST would be prescribed appropriately, reflecting revenue considerations and acceptability. This dual GST model would be implemented through multiple statutes (one for CGST and SGST statute for every State). However, the basic features of law such as chargeability, definition of taxable event and taxable person, measure of levy including valuation provisions, basis of classification etc. would be uniform across these statutes as far as practicable.

· The Central GST and the State GST would be applicable to all transactions of goods and services made for a consideration except the exempted goods and services, goods which are outside the purview of GST and the transactions which are below the prescribed threshold limits.

· The Central GST and State GST are to be paid to the accounts of the Centre and the States separately. It would have to be ensured that account-heads for all services and goods would have indication whether it relates to Central GST or State GST (with identification of the State to whom the tax is to be credited).

· Since the Central GST and State GST are to be treated separately, taxes paid against the Central GST shall be allowed to be taken as input tax credit (ITC) for the Central GST and could be utilized only against the payment of Central GST. The same principle will be applicable for the State GST. A taxpayer or exporter would have to maintain separate details in books of account for utilization or refund of credit. Further, the rules for taking and utilization of credit for the Central GST and the State GST would be aligned.

· Cross utilization of Income Tax Credit between the Central GST and the State GST would not be allowed except in the case of inter-State supply of goods and services under the IGST model which is explained later.

· Ideally, the problem related to credit accumulation on account of refund of GST should be avoided by both the Centre and the States except in the cases such as exports, purchase of capital goods, input tax at higher rate than output tax etc. where, again refund/adjustment should be completed in a time bound manner.

· To the extent feasible, uniform procedure for collection of both Central GST and State GST would be prescribed in the respective legislation for Central GST and State GST.

· The administration of the Central GST to the Centre and for State GST to the States would be given. This would imply that the Centre and the States would have concurrent jurisdiction for the entire value chain and for all taxpayers on the basis of thresholds for goods and services prescribed for the States and the Centre.

· The taxpayer would need to submit periodical returns, in common format as far as possible, to both the Central GST authority and to the concerned State GST authorities.

· Each taxpayer would be allotted a PAN-linked taxpayer identification number with a total of 13/15 digits. This would bring the GST PAN-linked system in line with the prevailing PAN-based system for Income tax, facilitating data exchange and taxpayer compliance.

· Keeping in mind the need of tax payer’s convenience, functions such as assessment, enforcement, scrutiny and audit would be undertaken by the authority which is collecting the tax, with information sharing between the Centre and the States.

Why GST is being introduced?
A product or service passes through many stages till it reaches the final consumer. Governments at Central and State level have, as and when the need arose, introduced many indirect taxes on various taxable events in this value chain (such as Excise duty on manufacture, VAT on sale etc). As these taxes are levied on different taxable events they have their limitations. To illustrate further, let’s take an example of Excise Duty. Excise duty is levied on ‘manufacture’ and it fails to tax the value addition at distribution level. Additionally, at present, ‘goods’ suffer two levies (Excise and VAT) whereas ‘taxable services’ suffer only one levy i.e. service tax. This leads to distortion: distortion arises because the relative prices of services would be lower as compared to goods. Even, as current tax system treats goods and services differently, in certain cases there is double taxation (software being one of such case where the industry has taken conservative stand and both VAT and Service Tax is being currently levied). Also, there are restrictions on availment of credit such as a service provider cannot avail credit of VAT and a trader cannot avail credit of Service tax.

The above lacunas affect free flow of goods and services. Additionally, it brings uncertainty in the trade which is not good for the economy as a whole. GST is now being projected as a solution to all these problems.

How GST Will Work
Generally, the dealers registered under GST (Manufacturers, Wholesalers and retailers and service providers) charge GST on the price of goods and services from their customers and claim credits for the GST included in the price of their own purchases of goods and services used by them. While GST is paid at each step in the supply chain of goods and services, the paying dealers don’t actually bear the burden of the tax because GST is an indirect tax and ultimate burden of the GST has to be taken by the last customer.

This is because they include GST in the price of the goods and services they sell and can claim credits for the most GST included in the price of goods and services they buy. The cost of GST is borne by the final consumer, who can’t claim GST credits, i.e. input credit of the tax paid.

The GST can be divided into following sections to understand it better:
1. Charging Tax:
The dealers registered under GST (Manufacturers, Wholesalers and Retailers and Service Providers) are required to charge GST at the specified rate of tax on goods and services that they supply to customers. The GST payable is included in the price paid by the recipient of the goods and services. The supplier must deposit this amount of GST with the Government.

2. Getting Credit of GST:
If the recipient of goods or services is a registered dealer (Manufacturers, Wholesalers and Retailers and Service Providers), he will normally be able to claim a credit for the amount of GST he has paid, provided he holds a proper tax invoice. This “input tax credit” is setoff against any GST (Out Put), which the dealer charges on goods and services, which he supplies, to his customers.

3. Ultimate Burden of Tax on Last Customer:
The net effect is that dealers charge GST but do not keep it, and pay GST but get a credit for it. This means that they act essentially as collecting agents for the Government. The ultimate burden of the tax falls on the last and final consumer of the goods and services, as this person gets no credit for the GST paid by him to his sellers or service providers.

4. Registration:
Dealers will have to register for GST. These dealers will include the suppliers, manufacturers, service providers, wholesalers and retailers. If a dealer is not registered, he normally cannot charge GST and cannot claim credit for the GST he pays and further cannot issue a tax invoice.

5. Tax Period:
The tax period will have to be decided by the respective law and normally it is monthly and/or quarterly. On a particular tax period, which is applicable to the dealer concerned, the dealer has to deposit the tax if his output credit is more than the input credit after considering the opening balance, if any, of the input credit.

6. Refunds:
If for a tax period the input credit of a dealer is more than the output credit then he is eligible for refund subject to the provisions of law applicable in this respect. The excess may be carried forward to next period or may be refunded immediately depending upon the provision of law.

7. Exempted Goods and Services:
Certain goods and services may be declared as exempted goods and services and in that case the input credit cannot be claimed on the GST paid for purchasing the raw material in this respect or GST paid on services used for providing such goods and services.

8. Zero Rated Goods and Services:
Generally, export of goods and services are zero-rated and in that case the GST paid by the exporters of these goods and services is refunded. This is the basic difference between Zero rated goods and services and exempted goods and services.

9. Tax Invoice:
Tax invoice is the basic and important document in the GST and a dealer registered under GST can issue a tax invoice and on the basis of this invoice the credit (Input) can be claimed. Normally a tax invoice must bear the name of supplying dealer, his tax identification nos., address and tax invoice nos. coupled with the name and address of the purchasing dealer, his tax identification nos., address and description of goods sold or service provided.

The working of GST with respect to manufacturer, dealer and consumer can be seen in the illustrations:

The manufacturers will get the input credit of all the taxes paid by them on the raw material and also on the services us assume the rate of GST at 16% and a plastic manufacturing company has consumed the following goods and services while producing the goods, which they are able to sell at Rs. 90 lakh plus tax: -

Now the “Output Tax” i.e the tax charged from the purchaser as under;

The net tax payable by manufacturer is:-

If the goods are sold to a trader by this manufacturer and the trader also used some of the services amounting to Rs. 6 lakh on which he has paid service tax amounting to Rs. 0.96 lakh, then his input tax is as under:

Now the dealer sold the goods to the consumers by adding his profit of Rs. 10 lakh and in that case his output tax will be as under:

The net tax payable by the dealer is as under:

Now through this system we have presumed that the goods of Rs. 100 lakh are sold to the customers then the Government in that case has got the tax in the following form:

This is exactly equal to the amount that has to be borne and ultimately paid by the last customer on Rs.100 lakh @ 16% i.e. Rs. 16 lakh.

Apparently the system is very much similar to the present system of VAT but the implementation of this system will certainly have some unique problems compared to VAT.

In a very simple manner the overall system of GST can be seen as under with the help of this table:

Chain of Business
I Manufacturer - Production.
II Whole Seller - Retailer - Buyer
III Consumers

The supplies can be categorized as – business to business supplies and business – to consumers supplies. The computation of CGST and SGST liability will be based on profitability through the Credit method, allow Credit for Tax paid on all intermediate goods or services on the basis of invoices issued by the supplier, A result. All different stages of production and distribution can be interpreted as a TAX pass – through profitability, and the Tax will effectively on final consumption in this way.

The current regime substantial taxes paid on procurements by the small medium enterprises were not creditable by dealers and hence, it increased the costing for example, a traders of goods was no entitled to avail credit of the duty paid however, under the GST regime, all eligible taxes paid by the manufacturer would be available as credit, which can be utilized to discharge the CGST and SGST liability. This would reduce their cost. Business – to business supplies, The market for the existing dealers manufacturer would also expand. Under the

current regime the tax structure was determined by the state wise, In the same state in order to avail the Vat Credit advantage however, under the GST regime tax credits would flow irrespective of the location of the buyer and the seller but it would be a beneficial legislation for those who are engaged in supplying goods and service to the business after all, In General, in the supply chain leading to increase in final cost to the consumer.

GST is not a tax on business but a tax on consumers. Business that purchase goods and services that are consumed, used or supplied can claim inputs tax credit subject to prescribed documentation as apply GST on the same goods or service several times as it passes

from business to business on its way to the final consumer, in this way the tax is essentially borne by final consumer. GST the tax base will shift from production to consumption.

Inter-State Transactions of Goods and Services (IGST)
The scope of IGST Model is that Centre would levy IGST which would be CGST plus SGST on all inter-State transactions of taxable goods and services with appropriate provision for consignment or stock transfer of goods and services. The inter-State seller will pay IGST on value addition after adjusting available credit of IGST, CGST, and SGST on his purchases. The Exporting State will transfer to the Centre the credit of SGST used in payment of IGST. The Importing dealer will claim credit of IGST while discharging his output tax liability in his own State. The Centre will transfer to the importing State the credit of IGST used in payment of SGST. The relevant information will also be submitted to the Central Agency which will act as a clearing house mechanism, verify the claims and inform the respective governments to transfer the funds.

The major advantages of IGST Model are:
a) Maintenance of uninterrupted ITC chain on inter- State transactions.

b) No upfront payment of tax or substantial blockage of funds for the inter-State seller or buyer.

c) No refund claim in exporting State, as ITC is used up while paying the tax.

d) Self monitoring model.

e) Level of computerization is limited to inter-State dealers and Central and State Governments should be able to computerize their processes expeditiously.

f) As all inter-State dealers will be e-registered and correspondence with them will be by e-mail, the compliance level will improve substantially.

g) Model can take ‘Business to Business’ as well as ‘Business to Consumer’ transactions into account.

GST Administration
The Centre and the States would have concurrent jurisdiction for the entire value chain and for all taxpayers on the basis of thresholds for goods and services prescribed for the States and the Centre

GST Legislation
A separate legislation would be drafted for Central GST. Each State would have its own legislation to levy and collect SGST.

The basic features of law such as chargeability, definition of taxable event and taxable person, measure of levy including valuation provisions, basis of classification etc. would be uniform across these statutes as far as practicable.

Accounts and GST Credit
The Central GST and State GST are to be paid to the accounts of the Centre and the States separately. It would have to be ensured that account-heads for all services and goods would have indication whether it relates to Central GST or State GST (with identification of the State to whom the tax is to be credited).

Full input credit system would operate in parallel for the Central GST and the State GST. Taxes paid against the Central GST shall be allowed to be taken as input tax credit (ITC) for the Central GST and could be utilized only against the payment of Central GST. The same principle will be applicable for the State GST.

A taxpayer or exporter would have to maintain separate details in books of account for utilization or refund of credit. Further, the rules for taking and utilization of credit for the Central GST and the State GST would be aligned.

Cross utilization of input tax credit for goods and services would be allowed. However, no credit between CGST and SGST would be permitted, except in the case of inter-State supply of goods and services under the IGST model.

Credit Accumulation
The White Paper on GST states that refund/adjustment of accumulated credit should be completed in a time bound manner.

However, ideally, the problem related to credit accumulation on account of refund of GST should be avoided by both the Centre and the States except in the cases such as exports, purchase of capital goods, input tax at higher rate than output tax etc.

Collection Procedures
To the extent feasible, uniform procedure for collection of both Central GST and State GST would be prescribed in the respective legislation for Central GST and State GST.

Periodical Returns /PAN Based ID
The taxpayer would need to submit periodical returns, in common format as far as possible, to both the Central GST authority and to the concerned State GST authorities.

Each taxpayer would be allotted a PAN-linked taxpayer identification number with a total of 13/15 digits. This would bring the GST PAN-linked system in line with the prevailing PAN-based system for Income tax, facilitating data exchange and taxpayer compliance.

Assessment & Scrutiny
Functions such as assessment, enforcement, scrutiny and audit would be undertaken by the authority which is collecting the tax, with information sharing between the Centre and the States.

Systems of GST
Internationally, there are three systems in vogue:
(a) Invoice System
(b) Payment System
(c) Hybrid System

(a) Invoice System: In the invoice system, the GST (Input) is claimed on the basis of invoice and it is claimed when the invoice is received, it is immaterial whether payment is made or not. Further the GST (Output) is accounted for when invoice is raised. Here also the time of receipt of payment is immaterial. One may treat it as mercantile system of accounting. In India the present system of sales tax on goods is an invoice system of VAT and here it is immaterial whether the taxpayer is following the cash basis of accounting or mercantile basis of accounting. The advantage of invoice system is that the input credit can be claimed without making the payment. The disadvantage of the invoice system is that the GST has to be paid without receiving the payment.

(b) Payment System: In the payment system of GST, the GST (Input) is claimed when the payment for purchases is made and the GST (Output) is accounted for when the payment is made. In this system, it is immaterial whether the assessee is maintaining the accounts on cash basis or not. The advantage of cash invoice system is that the Tax (output) need not be deposited until the payment for the goods and/or services is received. The disadvantage of the payment system is that the GST (input) cannot be claimed without making the payment. The Taxes on services in India are based on this payment system since service tax is payable on receipt basis and further Cenvat credit is only allowable when payment of the service is made. In some countries, this system is also adopted for small traders to keep them away from the complexities of the Invoice system, which is purely a mercantile system.

(c) Hybrid System: In hybrid system the GST (Input) is claimed on the basis of invoice

and GST (Output) is accounted for on the basis of payment, if allowed by the law. In some countries the dealers have to put their option for this system or for a reversal of this system before adopting the same.

GST and Present System of VAT
In principle, there is no difference between present tax structure under VAT and GST as far as the tax on goods is concerned because GST is also a form of VAT on Goods and services. Here at present the sales tax, with an exception of CST, is a VAT system and in case of service tax the system also has the Cenvat credit system hence both sales tax and service tax are under VAT system in our country. At present the goods and services are taxed separately but in GST the difference will be vanished.

All the states have their own VAT Laws comprising VAT acts and VAT rules and these

acts and rules are formulated on the basis of “White Paper on VAT” issued by the empowered committee of states’ Finance Ministers on VAT headed by Dr. AsimDas Gupta, the Finance Minister of West Bengal.

Due to the fact that the taxpayers are already using the Vatable sales tax and service tax system there may be a possibility that GST will be a matter of settlement between the Centre and the states and like VAT, the possibility of any resistance from the tax payers is somewhat less.

The Constitution of India, 1950 demarcates taxing powers in a two-tier structure wherein levies on production and international imports are with the Union and post- production levies rest with the states.

The Centre levies duties of excise on manufactures and import/countervailing duties on international imports apart from levying a tax on services under various taxing and the residuary entry in the Union List. The states levy VAT on goods sold or entering in the state under various entries of the state list. A harmonised, integrated and full fledged GST calls for the following hurdles in its successful implementation in India:

· Implementation of GST calls for effecting widespread amendments in the Constitution and the various constitutional entries relating to taxation. In the current scenario it is difficult to visualise constitutional amendments of such far reaching implications going through, more so in view of the fact that sharing of legislative powers is such an essential element of our federal polity and it may be perceived to be a basic feature of the Constitution; services have to be appropriately integrated in the tax network;

· One of the other major issues concerned is the appropriate designing and structuring of GST in India. The issues involved includes, how the issue of inter-state movement of goods and services may be addressed, taxes on services originating in one state and being consumed in other state etc;

· Another contentious issue that is bound to crop up in this regard is the manner of sharing of resources between the Centre and the states and among the states inter se as also the basis of their devolution;

· Finally, apart from all these, there has to be a robust and integrated Management Information System dedicated to the task of tracking flow of goods and services across the country and rendering accurate accounting of levies associated with such flow of goods and services.

GST and Constitutional discrepancies: -

Presently, there are parallel systems of indirect taxation at the Central and State levels. Each of the systems needs to be reformed to eventually harmonize them.

For its implementation the Finance Ministry resorted to a constitutional amendment to allow States to tax services as recommended by the G.C. Srivastava Committee. Earlier G.C. Srivastava Committee on service tax had recommended either bringing services in the concurrent list or allowing States to tax services on the lines of the Central Sales Tax Act. Before the amendment, the power to levy tax on services is not mentioned either in the Union List or State List contained in the Schedule VII of the Constitution. With the then constitutional framework the only option is to invoke entry 97 of the Union List which has been vested with residuary powers to levy any tax not mentioned in the State List or the Concurrent List. The Central Government had invoked the entry 97 and taxed various services. Entry 97 which reads as ‘Any other matter not enumerated in List II or List III including any tax not mentioned in either of those lists.’

The 95th Constitutional Amendment Bill for the inclusion of services for levying service tax has been approved by the Cabinet and passed by both Houses of the Parliament. By this amendment, the Bill proposed to insert a new entry 92C, and a new article 268A to enable the levy by the Union, but collected and appropriated by the States and to frame a law to determine how the proceeds of tax would be shared with the States.

The Empowered Committee has reached an agreement on the basic structure of GST in keeping with the principle of fiscal federalism enshrined in the Constitution of India.

Advantages of Implication of GST in India
· It will boost up economic unification of India; it will assist in better conformity and revenue resilience; it will evade the cascading effect in Indirect tax regime.
· In GST system, both Central and state taxes will be collected at the point of sale. Both components (the Central and state GST) will be charged on the manufacturing cost.
· It will reduce the tax burden for consumers;
· It will result in a simple, transparent and easy tax structure; merging all levies on goods and services into one GST.
· It will bring uniformity in tax rates with only one or two tax rates across the supply chain;
· It will result in a good administration of tax structure;
· It may broaden the tax base;
· It will increase tax collections due to wide coverage of goods and services.
· It will result in cost competitiveness of goods and services in Global market.
· It will reduce transaction costs for taxpayers through simplified tax compliance.
· It will result in increased tax collections due to wider tax base and better conformity.

Disadvantages of Implementation of GST
1. Not using the correct accounting method.

2. Incorrectly claiming GST credits on bank fees

3. Incorrectly claiming GST credits on government charges --such as land tax, council rates, water rates.

4. Incorrectly claiming a GST credit on the 'total cost' of a business insurance policy.

Because there's a stamp duty component in the premium which is not subject to GST, a GST credit cannot be claimed on this portion of the payment.

5. Not remitting GST on some government grants and incentives which are received inclusive of GST

6. GST is not paid on the sale of cars and equipment including the trade of motor vehicles.

7. Incorrectly claiming GST credits on wages and superannuation payments.

8. Incorrectly claiming GST credits on GST-free purchases

such as basic food items, exports and some health services.

9. Incorrectly claiming the full amount of GST credits on entertainment expenses where the business has elected for fringe benefits tax purposes to use the 50/50 split method, in which case only 50% of the input tax credits can be claimed.

10. Claiming the entire GST credits on a car purchased for more than the luxury car limit.

11. Sole traders and partnerships are not apportioning input tax credits and making adjustments to expenditure that's partly private and partly business use .

12. Incorrectly claiming an upfront GST credit on assets financed through a commercial hire purchase (CHP).

While an up-front GST credit is available for businesses accounting for GST using the accruals or invoice basis,

13. Incorrectly claiming GST credits on payments for Yellow Pages advertising. If the business chooses to pay for the cost of advertising by instalments,

14. Claiming a GST credit when the business does not have a valid tax invoice at the time of lodging the Business Accounting Standards.

CONCLUSION
This system is basically structured to simplify current indirect tax system in India. It integrates the union excise duties, customs duties, service tax and state VAT into a single point levy i.e. GST. It may be rightly termed as a national level VAT on goods and services with one of the differences that it also covers Service under its scope.

The introduction of GST will certainly change the Federal system of Governance in our country in which states also have the right to collect taxes on goods.

Integration of goods and services taxation would give India a world class tax system and improve tax collections. It would end the long standing distortions of differential treatments of manufacturing and service sector.

GST will facilitate seamless credit across the entire supply chain and across all States under a common tax base.

GST will bring more transparency into the system and enhance competitiveness as well as efficiency of the manufacturing sector and its overall governance. Implementation of GST would create a level playing field for domestic manufacturers and help them to compete better with their global counterparts. GST would aid manufacturers in accessing seamless credit across the entire supply chain.

A well-designed GST is the most graceful method to get rid of distortions of the existing process of multiple taxation. Therefore, all taxes on goods and services levied by Central and state governments should be included under GST.

Input tax is the tax paid on purchases by a registered dealer in course of his business for resale; use in the execution of works contract; use in processing or manufacturing; where such goods; directly goes into the composition of the finished products, are used as packing materials for packing of goods for sale, are consumables directly used in the process of manufacturing, are capital goods used directly in the process of manufacturing.
_________________________________
# Tax on the manufacture or production of goods.
# Tax on the act of sale.
# http://taxguru.in/goods-and-service-tax/goods-services-tax-gst-model-for-india.html
# http://www.icai.org/resource_file/96521595-1601.pdf
# http://www.icai.org/resource_file/96521595-1601.pdf
# http://ntnonline.net/G.S.T sudhir kumar.pdf
# http://www.icai.org/resource_file/15962conceptpaper.pdf

The  author can be reached at: navreet@legalserviceindia.com

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