13 May, 2017
The government on Thursday said eight state legislative assemblies have passed their respective State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) Bills so far, after Parliament approved the four GST laws on March 20.
Hasmukh Adhia, the revenue secretary on Friday, 5 May 2017, informed that the state level check posts, which collects taxes on the movement of goods will not be required post-GST.
"Another major benefit of the GST is that the entire process is automatic with hardly any scope for human interface", Adhia said, adding that like direct taxes, where an individual doesn't know who is processing his or her claim, there would be minimum human interface in indirect taxation as well. The transition from the current system to GST will also be smooth, said Adhia. There are couple of other check posts like the state excise check posts.
Petroleum and alcohol products are outside the new indirect tax regime until the GST Council decides to impose a rate on them.
He said the biggest beneficiary of the GST would be the logistics and transport sector because all the problems of moving goods across the country would go away.
Senior Congress MLA Bala Bachchan urged the government to also include electricity under the ambit of the GST, as it will ensure that consumers across all states get electricity at a uniform rate. He added that the US's Federal Reserve had appointed two economists to study GST and according to their research, India's growth will increase by 4.2 per cent if GST is implemented.
The next GST Council meeting is scheduled to be held at Srinagar in J&K on 18 and 19 May 2017.
