Goods and Services Tax (GST)

Besides the big rate rationalisation, the GST council also made recommendations to make compliance easier by allowing faster registration for small enterprises and making the refund process easier. How far would these reforms help with ease of doing business in India and what more can the government do push ease of doing business.

Here are the top headlines of the day: GST Council ‘aligned’ on the need to cut insurance premiums, specific proposal referred to GoM; Bajaj Housing Finance IPO fully subscribed in just 4 hours after opening; EVs will cost the same as petrol and diesel vehicles in 2 years, says Nitin Gadkari; Nifty snaps 3-day fall, 25,000-25,100 major hurdles; GMR Airports to acquire 10% in DIAL for $126 million

The 28% tax announced on online games and casinos was the key highlight of the GST Council’s meeting. But what does this tax on online gaming mean for for players and the skill-based gaming industry, and what will be its impact on the gaming startups? Let’s decode it for you.

The Centre's insistence to not term the borrowing issue as a dispute is primarily based on concerns that states might then use it to push for a dispute resolution mechanism

The government also announced an additional budget of Rs 25,000 crore, which would be provided for capital expenditure of Centre on roads, defence, infrastructure, water supply, urban development and domestically produced capital equipment

The compensation cess deadlock continues as even after an 8-hour meeting, the Centre and the States could not draw consensus on the issue of borrowing to make up for compensation shortfall.

According to the GST law, the Centre is expected to pay compensation to states for the states' loss of revenues because of subsuming of taxes.

The introduction of GST trimmed tax rate on two-wheelers to 28 percent from 30 percent. But with other safety and emission-related norms adding to the cost burden, the industry was anything but happy being in the highest GST slab rate.

Rajiv Bajaj pointed out that two-wheeler prices have risen nearly 35 percent and a cut in GST rate to 18 percent could make them cheaper and more affordable for customers.

"We'll discuss if market borrowing is needed to sort the issue and if yes, how should it be done," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said after the GST Council meeting.

Taxpayers, who could not get their cancelled GST registrations restored in time, can file an application for revocation of cancellation of registration up to September 30

Moneycontrol's Sakshi Batra talks to Gaurav Choudhury, Deputy Executive Editor, Moneycontrol to discuss the updates from the 38th GST council meeting.

Sakshi Batra is in conversation with Gaurav Choudhury to find what factors led to the surge in GST collections and how crucial is it for the government to sustain the pace at which it is mopping up tax under the new regime.

The GST Council which will meet tomorrow for the 26th time is likely to adopt the broad principles to design a new simplified return filing form.

Budget 2018: Here’s a look at the wishlist of corporate honchos, SMEs and small traders and what they are expecting from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

The Budget 2018 should focus on MSP linkage to become more flexible, link MNREGA subsidy to labour costs and subsidise implements like rotavators, tillers etc., said A Vellayan, CMD, Coromandel International.

Although alcohol has been kept out of GST but all input materials come under it and so average tax rate on the inputs could be higher post GST, said Shekhar Ramamurthy, MD, United Breweries

GST is likely to be disruptive from a supply point of view and not demand but that too will likely ease in a quarter or two, says Gautam Duggad of Motilal Oswal Securities.

The GST Council would likely be focusing on the items that have been left out than re-look or review rates that have already been announced, said Vanaja N Sarna, Chairperson, CBEC.

The two-day meeting of the Council, headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising representatives of all states, is working on fitting most of the items in the 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent template.