GST

The gross GST collection has crossed the Rs 1.5 lakh crore-mark for the first time in April 2022 and Rs 1 lakh crore-mark for the 10th month in a row.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the GoM in the national capital on May 2, Godinho, the state's representative to the Council, also said that after the recommendations made by the GoM, the GST council would take a final call on the taxation policy for the three services.

Among the many items on the Council's agenda, the extension of the GST compensation cess to states could turn out to be a contentious issue if the government refuses to accede to the request, given its vociferous demand from several opposition-rules states.

According to a Ministry of Finance statement, a section of the media has reported that feedback has been sought from states regarding a suggestion for raising Good and Services Tax (GST) rates on as many as 143 items. Some reports have even carried the number and description of the items, the statement said, adding that the GST Council, in its 45th meeting, had formed a Group of Ministers (GoM) to look into the rationalisation of rates and its deliberations are ongoing.

India's share is currently at 1-2 per cent of the global gaming market with a market size of $1.8 billion of which Real-Money gaming has the largest constituent of revenue pool driven by higher user paying propensity (around 20 per cent of total market size). The total number of users of gaming services are close to 433 million and is expected to touch 650 million by 2025. However, apart from fine-tuning the regulatory mechanism, there's an urgent need to look at the GST levied on the sector.

"The gross GST revenue collected in the month of March 2022 is Rs 1,42,095 crore of which CGST is Rs 25,830 crore, SGST is Rs 32,378 crore, IGST is Rs 74,470 crore (including Rs 39,131 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 9,417 crore (including Rs 981 crore collected on import of goods)," the Finance Ministry said.

"India is a land of diversity where consumers range from an ordinary person to most affluent class and their purchase behaviour is more as per their economic strata and therefore they can't be governed by a single yardstick, and therefore any policy or tax imposition should be levied accordingly in order to provide equitable strength to everyone ," said Secretary General of the traders' body Praveen Khandelwal.

India's GST collection rose 18 per cent in February 2022 on a year-on-year basis to Rs 133,026 crore, official data showed on Tuesday.However, on sequential basis, last month's collections were slightly lower than those of January 2022. In January 2022, the collection had stood at Rs 138,394 crore. Notably, this is the fifth time that the GST collection has crossed the Rs 1.30 lakh crore mark.

While major policy decisions in Goods and Service tax take place only through GST council, Union Budget 2022-23 has provided the much-needed changes in the statute, said Smita Singh, Partner, Indirect Taxes, Customs and Trade Laws, S&A Law Offices.

As per industry demands, the time limit for availment of input tax credit has been extended for a particular financial year from six months to nine months from the end of the financial year. The time limit for issuance of credit notes has also been extended to nine months, implying that credit notes for a particular financial year may be issued up to 30th November of the subsequent financial year instead of earlier limit of 30th September.