E-WAY RULES MAY BE FINALISED TODAY

The GST Council will meet on Saturday to iron out crucial issues related to e-way bill, finalise a mechanism to operationalise the anti-profiteering clause and revisit the demands of the textile as well as other sectors. The Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will also take stock of the implementation of the country’s biggest tax reform that was rolled out on July 1.

The goods and services tax (GST) Council is likely to lower tax rate on Saturday on job works making fabric to garments to 5 per cent and put in place a mechanism for online registration of goods above a certain value before they can be transported.

The Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will also review at its meeting the implementation of the new GST regime since July 1 and may finalise a mechanism to operationalise anti-profiteering provision to protect consumer interest. The Central Board of Excise and Customs Chairperson Vanaja Sarna said the movement of goods between states has eased, with 25 out of the 29 states abolishing checkposts.

This would further smoothen after eway bill in the GST that requires any goods more than ~50,000 in value to be pre-registered online before it can be moved is implemented.

She, however, declined to comment on whether the threshold in e-way bill will be retained at ~50,000 amid demands from various quarters to raise it.

Officials said rules for the e-way bill will be decided on Saturday. This GST provision requires any goods more than ~50,000 in value to be pre-registered online before it can be moved.

As per the draft provision, the GST Network would generate e-way bills that will be valid for 1-20 days, depending on the distance to be travelled - one day for 100 km, 3 days (100 to less than 300 km), 5 days (300 to less than 500 km) and 10 days (500 to less than 1,000 km).

The information technology platform for the e-way bill system is being developed by the National Informatics Centre.

Earlier this week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said it would be mandatory for manufacturers to pass on benefits

GST Council is likely to lower tax rate on Saturday on job works making fabric to garments to 5% and put in place a mechanism for online registration of goods above a certain value before they can be transported

of reduction in taxes post- GST to consumers.

“What if the input tax benefit is not transferred to consumers? We are meeting a few days from now. In a short while, we are going to finalise the entire mechanism as far as anti-profiteering is concerned,” he had said in Parliament.

The Council is also likely to consider lowering of tax rates for job works for making garments to 5 per cent from 18 per cent, an official said.

Currently, services by way of job works in relation to textile yarns — other than man-made fibre/filament — and textile fabrics attract 5 per cent GST. Other job works in relation to garments attract an 18 per cent levy.

The official said the Council may look at streamlining it and bring all job works, including making garments from fabric, under the 5-per cent slab.

Apart from reviewing the roll-out of the GST regime, the 20th meeting of the Council may, on Saturday, take a look at streamlining the anomalies raised by the industry over the past one month.

It will be the first full-fledged meeting of the GST Council, also comprising representatives of all the 29 states, after the roll-out of the new indirect tax reform on July 1. The Council had on July 17 discussed, via video conferencing, hiking cess on cigarettes, as there was some anomaly in the rate fixed earlier.

After the July 1 roll-out, the textile sector had protested, demanding roll-back of 5 per cent GST on fabrics.