GST

Scrapping or slashing of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on insurance premiums, making pension/annuity proceeds tax-free, and creating a separate category for tax deduction for premium paid are some of the budget wishlist of Indian insurers. The industry players are also expecting the Indian government to introduce the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill 2022, which is also expected to lead to the industry's growth.

"There is no wish list. Just one wish. Zero tax," quipped a Tamil Nadu government employee. While that may be possible in utopia another interesting wish expressed by a chartered accountant is the linking of dividends declared by companies to the market value of the shares.

With interest rates rising, a lot depends on Budget 2023 to support and sustain the housing demand. "The government should rationalise GST rates for construction materials like steel, cement and tiles. Additionally, the government should put aside more funds under the stress fund SWAMIH.

"Key trends to watch out for in 2023 are the sustainability of credit growth, equity inflows and solid corporate earnings momentum, which were the key drivers of India's outperformance in 2022. These trends should persist, in our view, and keep India's valuation elevated. We expect moderate returns in 2023 and would selectively buy on dips given our constructive view of the Indian market in the medium term," it said.

However, on year-on-year basis, GST revenue collected for December 2022 was 15 per cent higher than collections of December 2021, which was Rs 1,29,780 crore. Monthly GST revenues more than Rs 1.4 lakh crore for 10 straight months in a row, the figures mentioned. The gross GST revenue collected during December 2022 is Rs 1,49,507 crore, of which CGST is Rs 26,711 crore, SGST is Rs 33,357 crore, IGST is Rs 78,434 crore (including Rs 40,263 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 11,005 crore (including Rs 850 crore collected on import of goods).

"It is a matter of great regret that even after spending more than three years, the Central Government has not been able to bring e-commerce policy and e-commerce rules under Consumer Protection Act whereas the foreign e-commerce companies are bent upon in violating the law and the FDI policy quite openly under the nose of the government and no action has been taken so far," a statement issued by CAIT said.

The Ministry said that a major reason is the imposition of GST Compensation Cess, which is entirely used for payment of compensation to the states and flows to states as Grants-in-Aid, in their Receipts Budget. Resources from the other cesses are allocated to different schemes and programmes in the Union Budget, which are implemented by the states and other implementing agencies.

The GST Council has made the recommendations relating to changes in GST tax rates, measures for facilitation of trade and measures for streamlining compliances in GST. As per the Council recommendations, GST on husk of pulses reduced to nil from five per cent.

Appreciating wholeheartedly the major decision of the GST Council to allow small unregistered vendors to sell their goods through e-commerce portals, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Saturday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for this "progressive decision" which was demanded by CAIT since last more than two years.

Moreover, it also recommended reducing the compounding amount from the present range of 50 per cent to 150 per cent of tax amount to the range of 25 per cent to 100 per cent.Measures for facilitation of trade also included recommendation on decriminalising certain offences including obstruction or preventing any officer in discharge of his duties; deliberate tempering of material evidence and failure to supply the information.