GST features

Know about GST

The salient GST features, passed by the legislature after certain modifications are as follows:

The most significant GST feature is that it is expected to supersede a majority of the existing ineffective taxes including service tax, countervailing duty and also luxury taxes.

The GST features promises to be effective because consumers will have to pay the tax at the final level of the transactions and not at various levels. This will help improve the distorted economy and will also help in the holistic development of the same.

GST will be comprising of two components: one imposed by the center and the other by the state is known as the State GST. This is a dual (Centre and State) GST structure.

There will be 33 GST laws in India. In GST regime, there will be one CGST law and 31 SGST law for each of the States including two Union Territories and one IGST law governing the inter-State supply of goods and services.

GST will make administrative compliance much easier by reducing the amount of paperwork.

GST will be imposed on each and every transaction of the goods, barring only a few of them, which are exempted from the purview of GST.

Taxes will be levied on a supply of goods and services for a consideration.

Certain goods including liquor, petroleum, motor spirit, diesel, aviation turbine fuel and natural gas have been exempted from the purview of GST. This has been done to provide support to the states.

The concept of Zero rated supply has been introduced i.e. supplies are taxable but at 0%. Export of goods and services are zero-rated supply.

In the case of inter-state trading, the center can impose an integrated GST on the import of the products being traded.

Another important feature of the GST is the GST council. The council can recommend the division of the sum of money collected by the imposition of the tax.

The GST council will be headed by the Union Finance Minister and will be consisting of the Union Minister of the state in charge of finance and the state ministers in charge of the finance or taxation.

Parliament also proposes for compensation to the states for the loss of funds caused by the imposition of the GST. Thus the bill empowers the center to levy an additional tax of not more than 1% on the interstate supply of the goods for two or more years.

There will be different slabs of the tax rate for different goods and services.