No consensus yet on reduction of GST rates on vaccines, COVID essentials:

 







The Group of Ministers (GoM) set up to examine the issue of GST exemption on critical pandemic relief supplies, including Covid-19 vaccines failed to reach a consensus and the matter may go back to the Council.

“There is no clear consensus yet. It is a divided mandate. However, many aspects have been discussed. If there is no consensus, if there is no agreement, the matter will go back to the council again. A report will be submitted on the observations that were made during the deliberation,” a source aware of the development told TNIE.

Sources say, the report was submitted on Monday to the finance minister.

Slashing of GST rates on medicines, medical grade oxygen, pulse oximeters, test kits, hand sanitisers, oxygen therapy equipment, ventilators and other supplies was on the top of agenda in the last GST council meeting.

There was a lot of deliberation on this matter after the fitment committee said reducing GST would result in revenue losses.

Several states, however, said the rates have to be reduced else it will add to the burden of common people.

Opposition states, including West Bengal, Kerala and Punjab, have been demanding that the GST levied on Covid-related items be scrapped.

The finance minister had then formed a GoM to examine the issue headed by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma.

“I have decided and announced a group of ministers to submit a report within ten days on or before June 8 so that if there are any further reductions that need to be done, will be done,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in a media briefing after the meeting.

She also added that the revenue implications were not driving the rate cut reluctance.

Why Finance Minister is not keen on vaccine GST exemption

According to the Finance Minister, if exemption from GST is given, vaccine manufacturers would not be able to offset their input taxes and would pass them on to the end consumer.

Source:https://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2021/jun/08/no-consensus-yet-on-reduction-of-gst-rates-on-vaccines-covid-essentials-sources-2313183.html

Download our App to get knowledge updates:: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.gstmitraa

Join Our Telegram Channel for more updates: https://t.me/praveengst

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Centre appeals against ruling on levy of GST on maintenance charges to resident welfare associations

Image
  The Centre has preferred a writ appeal before the Madras High Court against a single judge's order that flat or villa owners paying more than ₹7,500 a month towards maintenance charges to their residents’ welfare associations must pay Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the rate of 18% only for the amount exceeding ₹7,500 and not for the entire monthly contribution. Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and Sathi Kumar Sukumara Kurup on Wednesday allowed an application filed by the Centre to dispense with production of a certified copy of the judgment passed by Justice Anita Sumanth recently and directed the Registry to list the appeal for admission in the usual course. Justice Sumanth had in July this year quashed an order passed by the Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) on June 21, 2019 as well as a consequent circular issued by the Department of Revenue under the Union Finance Ministry on July 22, 2019 since both of them had insisted upon collecting GST for entire monthly contribution. The jud...
Read more

Seven key things to know before filing income tax return (ITR) for FY21

Image
  The last date to file income tax return for the financial year 2020-21 has been extended to September 30, 2021. Although there is more than two months left for the deadline to end, it is always recommended to complete the task as soon as possible and not to wait for the last minute. Worth mentioning here is that the income tax department last month launched a new e-filing portal (www.incometax.gov.in) to speed up the processing of tax returns. The I-T department will soon launch a mobile application, having all the features of the new portal. This year taxpayers have to take care of the following changes in the ITR filing process. 1) A new utility named JSON has been launched for filing tax return forms for FY21. At present, only three forms, ITR 1, 2 and 4 have been released. These new forms will import pre-fill data such as personal details, salary income, dividend income, interest income, capital gains and all the information available in Form 26AS. 2) Taxpayers will have the ...
Read more

Income Tax Dept detects ₹350 cr unaccounted cash receipts after raid in Rajkot

Image
  The Income Tax Department carried out a search and seizure operation on a real estate group based in Gujarat's Rajkot and found unaccounted cash receipts in various projects of approximately ₹350 crore, the Finance Ministry said on Friday. The group is among Gujarat’s prominent real estate builders and developers and is actively engaged in real estate, construction and land trading businesses in and around Rajkot. More than 40 premises were covered in the search operation. During the course of operation, many incriminating documents and digital evidences were seized indicating involvement of the group in unaccounted transactions. The IT sleuths found substantial evidence of transactions outside the regular books of accounts, unaccounted cash expenses, cash advances received and interest paid in cash. Evidence of on-money payments in real estate projects-flats, shops and land deals has also been found. Total unaccounted cash receipts in various projects of approximately ₹350 crore...
Read more