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The government is planning a major overhaul in the Goods and Service Tax (GST) as the GST Law Review Committee "has identified around 180 issues", reported DNA.
"The (GST law review) panel has identified about 180 issues and put forward its suggestions before the GST Council. The Council is looking into the suggestions and some of these are proposed to be discussed in the monsoon session (starting from July 18) of Parliament. The Law Drafting Committee is working on the draft," a person aware of the development told the paper on condition of anonymity.
The committee has recommended several tweaks, including single registration for a taxpayer across India, change in the definition of 'supply' under Section 7 of the central GST (CGST) Act, and doing away with the precondition of matching returns with claims for availing input tax credit (ITC).
Trimming of the ITC negative list, further simplification of returns filing, inclusion of petroleum products as well as merging of 12 percent and 18 percent rates slabs are also on the anvil.
The move aims to smoothen the functioning of GST even further. In Novermber last year, the GST Council had slashed rates on more than 175 items, reducing taxes on these from the existing 28 percent in one of the biggest tax reductions.
The law review panel is also looking at the possibility of a single GST registration valid across India. Currently, every person or business firm that is liable to take GST registration has to register separately for each of the states in India where they have a business operation and/or where they conduct commercial activities as per the registration rules.
"It is being evaluated if some of the returns could be combined to make return filing simpler," the person told the paper.
The panel has suggested "matching need not necessarily be a pre-condition for ITC", a move that could bring a major relief for those whose ITC claims are stuck because of delay in filing of claims.
Other recommendations include the proposals for a single audit for all taxes against the multiple audits by different authorities and centralisation of Authority for Advance Rulings (AARs). The body is also exploring the possibility of including petroleum products under GST.
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