GST should not be rolled out with 'jugaad', says Minister
The GST reform should not be implemented with "jugaad" and the rollout date for the new tax regime should be postponed by a month, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra has said. The regime should be such that common people and small traders benefit alike, he added. Notably, the GST Council has lowered tax rates on 66 items including insulin.
New Delhi, Jun 11 (PTI) The worlds largest fiscal reform, Goods and Services Tax (GST), should not be implemented with "jugaad" and the rollout date for the new indirect tax regime should be postponed by a month, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra said today. He said West Bengal has been the "pioneer" in seeking GST implementation, but the regime should be such that common man and small traders benefit alike. "I have also added a caveat (in the Council meeting) that July 1 looks extremely difficult. But you cannot do Jugaad for worlds largest fiscal reform called GST," Mitra told reporters after the 16th meeting of the GST Council here. He said that a small business has to fill up spreadsheet which then has to go through a software process to get uplinked. Reports suggest that the formats of these would be made available only by the end of this month. "...And you are going to start GST from July 1. So my submission was, let us not do jugaad for something which is worlds largest fiscal reform," he said, adding that its rollout should be "postponed by one month or so". Asked if West Bengal is ready for a July 1 rollout, Mitra said there is still one more meeting of the GST Council on June 18 during which the preparedness will be assessed. "Whenever we are prepared fully to our satisfaction, everybody feels comfortable, we can go ahead," he said. In the meeting today, the GST Council decided that traders, manufacturers and restaurant owners with turnover of up to Rs 75 lakh can opt for a composition scheme and pay taxes at the rate of 1, 2, and 5 per cent respectively. Earlier, the Council had decided on a turnover limit of Rs 50 lakh. Besides, movie tickets costing up to Rs 100 will now attract 18 per cent tax, as against 28 per cent proposed earlier, while those above Rs 100 will continue to attract 28 per cent GST. Mitra termed increasing the turnover limit for availing composition scheme and reduction in tax rates for cinema tickets as "people centric measures". 