GST will make domestic companies more competitive: Hasmukh Adhia

New Delhi: Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia after a Cabinet meeting at South Block in New Delhi on Wednesday. PTI Photo by Subhav Shukla (PTI12_28_2016_000079B)

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia is hopeful of a smooth transition to the GST regime and says it will help domestic firms to become more competitive apart from streamlining the taxation for all business activities.

"Unlike in other countries, the transition to the new tax regime would be smooth here because there are multiple points of taxation in the country. Hence, the possibility of sudden spurt in inflation is remote," said Adhia, who is spearheading the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.

He was speaking at a conference on GST organised by the Federation of Gujarat Industries and the chief commissioner, Central Excise, Customs & Service Tax, Vadodara zone, here last evening.

Explaining GST's importance for giving a boost to the manufacturing sector, he said, "Cascading taxes along with non-availability of input credit meant that domestically produced goods found it harder to compete with imported ones.

"GST is a multi-point tax on value addition with seamless input tax credit," he said.

Adhia's comments come amid calls from some experts and a section of the industry for deferring the GST roll-out to September-October instead from July 1.

"There will be a level playing field for all and this will benefit the domestic units," Adhia said.

Eight state Assemblies have passed the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) Bill since the beginning of April.

The GST Council, the top decision-making body headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, approved the model SGST Bill at its 12th meeting on March 16. The next GST Council meeting will be held in Srinagar on May 18-19 to fix the tax rates of various commodities.