GST

According to figures released by Finance Ministry on Thursday, GST collections in August 2021 were Rs 1,12,020 crore. Out of the total collections, CGST was Rs 24,710 crore, SGST was Rs 30,951 crore, IGST was Rs 77,782 crore (including Rs 42,067 crore collected on import of goods), while the cess stood at Rs 10,168 crore (including Rs 1,018 crore collected on import of goods).

"The GST falls at the time of sale. The problem now will be with the old stock sporting the Maximum Retail Price (MRP). A retailer cannot sell at a price that is more than MRP nor he can alter the retail price by pasting a sticker," L.S. Karthikeyan, GST Consultant in Bengaluru told IANS. He also said the retailers selling the old stock will not get the input tax credit.

The CAIT said the existing GST Act and its rules should be reviewed and bring in radical change. The CAIT National President B.C. Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said the government and the traders have had many experiences in the last five years, so on the basis of those experiences, it is necessary to streamline the GST tax system to make compliance easy.

Exemptions have been withdrawn for pre-packed and pre-labelled food grains. Hotel accommodation up to Rs 1,000 per day will now be taxed at 12 per cent. Tax rates have been increased from 12 per cent to 18 per cent on products such as printing, writing or drawing ink, knives with cutting blades, spoons, forks, paper knives, pencil sharpeners, and LED lamps.

Similarly, unbranded but pre-packed curd, lassi, butter milk, food items, grains etc will be brought under the GST net from the exemption list. Writing, printing, or drawing ink will also become costlier. The rate rationalisation decision was taken at the two-day 47th GST Council Meeting, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, that started in Chandigarh on Tuesday.

This is the fourth time the monthly GST collection crossed Rs 1.40 lakh crore mark since inception of GST and the third month at a stretch since March 2022. Of the total collection in May, CGST amounted to Rs 25,036 crore, SGST was Rs 32,001 crore, IGST was Rs 73,345 crore, and cess Rs 10,502 crore.

The payment was made to assist the states in managing their resources and ensuring that their programmes, especially the expenditure on capital, is carried out successfully during the financial year, it said. "This decision has been taken despite the fact that only about Rs 25,000 crore is available in the GST Compensation Fund.

"The rate of GST on sales by eateries is five per cent whereas on visit to the restaurant of Timber Trail Resorts, Pawanoo, on last May 27, it has been found that this taxable person is charging GST at rate of 18 per cent i.e. nine per cent under the state GST and equal per cent under the Centre GST, whereas the rate of five per cent i.e. 2.5 per cent state GST and 2.5 per cent under Centre GST," Jagga said in a complaint.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Roland Landers, CEO of All India Gaming Federation said that the gaming industry awaits a clear judgment on GST restructuring and rate rationalisations on the online games.

Discussions are ongoing among various stakeholders to increase the GST rate to 28 per cent for the online gaming industry. There is no clarity on whether this will apply only to real money games or casual games as well, given that the former being a sub-segment of online gaming.