IT Correspondent
Mumbai, Jan 3:
Many states have demanded that the GST compensation cess regime be extended for another five years and the share of the Union government in the centrally-sponsored schemes be raised as the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their revenues.
As per a statement issued by Sangeeta Jain, Senior Director, All India Association of Industries, the GST compensation to states for revenue shortfall resulting from subsuming of local taxes such as VAT in the uniform national tax Goods and Services Tax (GST) will end in June this year.
The Centre has not made arrangements to compensate the loss of revenue of about Rs 5,000 crore to the state in the coming year, so the GST compensation grant should be continued for the next five years after June 2022, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said.
“Many states have asked for this. We have also asked to extend GST compensation. If it is not extended, the finances of many states will be in a bad shape,” Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said after pre-Budget consultation of finance ministers of states with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the 46th meeting of the Goods and Service Tax Council meeting in New Delhi on December 31. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the inverted duty structure of certain sectors and deliberation on the reports of the two Groups of Ministers that were set up during the last Council meeting in September last year.
As reported earlier, after rectifying the inverted duty structures in footwear and textiles, the all-powerful GST Council may take up the issue for some other sectors, including a few pharmaceutical products. The problem of inverted duty structure arises when the finished product is at a lower tax bracket compared to the input raw materials. However, this usually leads to the rise in rates of the finished products, and the rate increase in textiles and footwear has led to criticism from the central government’s political opposition.
Govt extends FY21 GST annual return filing deadline till February 28
The government has extended by two months till February 28 the deadline for businesses to file GST annual returns for 2020-21 fiscal ended March 2021. “The due date for furnishing annual return in form GSTR-9 and self-certified reconciliation statement in form GSTR-9C for the financial year 2020-21 has been extended from till February 28, “ the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) said in a late-night tweet on Wednesday.
GSTR 9 is an annual return to be filed yearly by taxpayers registered under the Goods and Services Tax (GST). It consists of details regarding the outward and inward supplies made or received under different tax heads.GSTR-9C is a statement of reconciliation between GSTR-9 and the audited annual financial statement.
Benefit of reduced performance security extended till March 2023
The centre has also extended till March 2023 the benefit of reduced performance security in government contracts. According to the rules, a successful bidder awarded a government contract has to deposit a performance security of 5-10 % of the value of the contract with the government. To help commercial entities and contractors tide over the liquidity crunch post the first wave of the COVID pandemic, the finance ministry had in November 2020 reduced this performance security to 3% for all tenders or contracts issued or concluded till December 31, 2021. The finance ministry on Thursday said that the government of India has decided to extend the benefit of reduced performance security of 3 % up to March 31, 2023, for all central government tenders/contracts issued/concluded till March 31, 2023.
Centre notifies new rules for consumer commissions
The Centre has notified the Consumer Protection (Jurisdiction of the District Commission, the State Commission and the National Commission) Rules, 2021, revising the pecuniary jurisdiction of the district, State and national commissions. According to the notification, district commissions will have jurisdiction to entertain complaints where the value of the goods or services paid does not exceed Rs.50 lakh. State commissions can handle complaints in the range of Rs.50 lakh-Rs.2 crore. “The National Commission shall have jurisdiction to entertain complaints where the value of the goods or services paid as consideration exceeds Rs.2 crore,” it added.
