Tag: cess

GST revenue gap may widen to Rs 85,000 crore for FY18: Amit Mitra

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Expressing concern over declining goods and services tax (GST) revenue, West Bengal’s finance minister Amit Mitra on Thursday said that states are facing a revenue shortfall of Rs 39,111 crore in the four months after the July 1 roll-out.

The government had anticipated a revenue shortfall of Rs 55,000 crore, which was expected to be recovered through the compensation cess levied on luxury and sin goods, but now the revenue gap is expected to widen to Rs 80-85,000 crore for the whole financial year, Dr Mitra said.

“Revenue of Rs 43,013 crore per month was to be protected for states. For all states for four months, we needed Rs 1.72 lakh crore for revenue protection. What have we got? Rs 1.33 lakh crore. That means there is a revenue protection shortfall of Rs 39,111 crore in the (first) four months,” Dr Mitra said at the annual general meeting of FICCI.

Dr Amit Mitra was participating in a session on GST with the finance ministers of Jammu & Kashmir and Bihar.

জিএসটিতে বিদ্ধ ছোট শিল্প: অমিত মিত্র

সেপ্টেম্বরে জিএসটি থেকে আয় হয়েছিল ৯৫,১৩১ কোটি টাকা। অক্টোবরে তা নেমেছে ৮৩,৩৪৬ কোটিতে। ছোট ও মাঝারি শিল্পগুলি সমস্যায় পড়েছে বলেই এই ছবি ফুটে উঠছে বলে অভিযোগ তুললেন অমিত মিত্র।

বৃহস্পতিবার ফিকি-র বার্ষিক সাধারণ সভায় পশ্চিমবঙ্গের অর্থমন্ত্রীর দাবি, ‘‘জিএসটি-র রাজস্ব আয়ের পরিসংখ্যান নিয়ে স্বচ্ছতা নেই। কিন্তু বাস্তব হল, এক মাসে প্রায় ১২ হাজার কোটি টাকা আয় কমেছে। প্রক্রিয়াগত জটিলতায় ছোট-মাঝারি সংস্থাগুলি রিটার্ন ফাইল করতে পারছে না। উৎপাদনও ৪০% মার খেয়েছে।’’

অমিতবাবুর হিসেব, জিএসটি-তে রাজ্যগুলির প্রথম চার মাসে রাজস্ব আয়ে ঘাটতির পরিমাণ প্রায় ৩৯,১১১ কোটি টাকা। রাজ্যগুলি কেন্দ্রের থেকে ক্ষতিপূরণ পেয়ে যাবে। কিন্তু এর ফলে কেন্দ্রের আয় নিয়েও চিন্তার কারণ রয়েছে। তাঁর দাবি, ধরা হয়েছিল, চলতি অর্থবর্ষে ৫৫ হাজার টাকা ক্ষতিপূরণ দরকার হবে। তা প্রায় ৯০ হাজার কোটিতে পৌঁছবে।

অমিতবাবুর যুক্তি, জিএসটি-র বাইরে থেকেই রাজ্যগুলির গড়ে ৪০% আয় হয়। জিএসটি-ব্যবস্থা স্থিতিশীল না হওয়া পর্যন্ত পেট্রোল-ডিজেলকে এর আওতায় আনা উচিত নয়।

Vivek Gupta speaks in Rajya Sabha on the Union Budget

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Sir, a lot have been said about the Budget by my esteemed colleagues before me. Sir, through you, I want to point out to the Hon. FM a very glaring fact. Sir, in the name of various cess and surcharge, Rs 1.7 lakh crore is collected every year. Sir, this surcharge and cess is not shared with the States.

Sir, through you I would like to know from the Hon. FM, why this discrimination is done and why the States are deprived from their share of the revenue? Why this practice, Sir, of increasing the cess and surcharge? Sir, why not simply increase the tax rates so that the all States – we are sitting in the Council of States – will also get the share of that revenue.

Sir, particularly my State, we have done a rough calculation, is deprived of at least more than Rs 10,000 crore only on this account. That too at a time when there is a a lot of talk about fiscal autonomy and giving greater fiscal power to the States. Sir, I would request you to ensure that I get an answer from the FM.

Sir, moving on,enough has been said about demonetisation; I just want to leave them with some questions. Yesterday Indian Express reported that there is a 10% drop in advance tax collections. All along we have been told that the economy is doing well, the tax collection is going well. Yesterday, March 15, 2017, was the last date of advance tax payments; so there is some effect of demonetisation.

Sir, whenever you use your debit card or credit card, the petrol pumps are charging 2.5% surcharge. The Government of India charges of 15% service tax on this also. And during demonetisation, till December 31, 2016, 0.75% – that is roughly about this service tax amount – was coming back to us. So every time I am swiping my debit card or credit card at the petrol pump, I have to pay 2.5% surcharge. Sir I don’t understand why the government is penalising us for using credit cards while talking of less cash economy.

Sir, this Budget also failed to correct the increasing invasion into the finances of the States. Sir, recently in Bengal two officers were appointed specially by this Central Government just to look over the operations of our treasury. Sir, the Bengal Government is the only recipient of these officers. No other State in India got these officers. Through you, I want to ask why this special treatment was given to Bengal? What has Bengal done to deserve this?

Sir regarding Aadhaar, the government makes an announcement one day and the next day they withdraw the announcement. Now I wonder if the Aadhaar will be made mandatory to even enter the Parliament; probably that is the only thing left.

Sir, on black money enough has been said. I want to point out only one point. Sir 74 percent of the FDA that comes into India comes from three tax havens. These are figures that the government knows. Our Hon. Finance Minister very easily quotes in the press that ‘so many’ people go out abroad every year yet ‘so many’ people pay taxes. But Sir, people don’t even need to go abroad; just send the money abroad and get it back. Everybody knows this. The Panama Papers have been leaked, but Sir, no action has been taken on them. Domestic demonetisation is there, I wonder if there is any plan to do some foreign demonetisation on these people.

Sir, before I end my speech I just want to you speak about tax terrorism that continues. I just want to point out a few things. Probably the government has overlooked these facts. Sir there are 23 crore PAN card holders and only 4 crore file their returns. Sir, what steps has the Government taken to attack these 23 crore people who are not filing their returns? We would like to know the detailed answer from the Minister.

Sir, the PAN card is used more as a photo identity card; my request to you would be to request the Hon. Finance Minister to even put the addresses also on the PAN card. Then it would become a complete photo ID card which has address and photo both. A lot of these people sir have taken PAN cards only because it is the only ID accepted by banks. Although there is a list given by RBI where 18 documents are supposed to be accepted but no bank, no financial institution, no government offices accept these. The first thing they say is give me your PAN card. So, even a poor person with an income of less than Rs 1 lakh per annum has to go for a PAN card. Therefore, the government is feeling that there are so many income taxpayers who are not filing their returns.

It has been pointed out that some 1.8 lakh crore cases are pending in tax disputes. But whenever we get our orders that dues are adjusted, no details of those dues are available on the website. When we go to the Income Tax Department, files are lost. There is total anarchy. Through you, I would request some special trial be done to help these taxpayers.

Thank you, Sir.

 

 

Trinamool’s Derek O’Brien speaks during Zero Hour on the utilisation and disbursement of cess collected under various heads | Full transcript

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Sir, while the Government is peddling cooperative federalism – I’m very happy that you’ve allowed this Zero Hour. The Finance Minister is also here, and this would be of interest to him because this is an issue on which all parties and all parties are one; he can address this issue today. What is that issue, Sir? Cess.

The Government collects cess under various heads, with the amounts being transferred to the specific fund set up for the purpose. The present Government has implemented two new cesses in the two years since it came to power. With the implementation of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Cess in 2015 and Krishi Kalyan Cess this year, the service tax rate payable in the country has gone up to 15%. The Government has collected Rs 3901.78 crore from the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Cess in FY 2015-16 and Rs 759 crore from Krishi Kalyan Cess for the month of June 2016.

However, a closer look at the Government account paints a grim picture of how the funds are lying unutilised in the public coffer. From 2002 to 2015, Rs 66117 crore was collected for the Universal Service Obligation Fund, of which Rs 2698 crore has been spent, a mere 40.8%. It gets even worse as from 1996-2015 Rs 5784 crore was collected under Research and Development Cess of which 78.8% remains unutilised and 100% of the cess collected on tea (Rs. 57.37 crore in 2014-15) is also unutilised.

A CAG report of 2014-15 had stated as much: ‘Specific purpose cess being collected were also not credited to the earmarked funds in the Public Account, thus leading to inaccurately reflecting the unspent amount of cess collected by the Government over the years.’

The Sarkaria Commission in its report had also recommended that while it may be necessary for the Government to levy cesses in view of specific needs, their application should be for limited durations and for specific purposes only.

That leads us to the bigger question, on GST. Will the Government consider that the cesses should be subsumed by the GST, because unless this happens, Sir, it will not be true federalism. The cesses have to be subsumed because, otherwise, you are collecting the cess but you are under-utilising them.

Everybody has been quoting the Chief Economic Advisor on GST. But he himself has said that cess should be subsumed in GST, Sir. If this Government is true to the spirit of federalism, it should seriously consider absorbing all the cesses into GST.

Sir, while on the subject of cooperative federalism – there are letters going out to Chief Ministers, appointing BDOs from the Centre. There are letters going out to Chief Ministers which are saying IAS officers from the State cadre (in my case, Bengal) have to spend three to six months in Delhi. This is actually impeding on the independence of the State Government.

So, whether it is Aadhar card or anything else, let us do it the best way we can. Don’t make it compulsory. Don’t send out letters like these. Stop collecting the cesses, Sir, and if you want a good GST, Sir, subsume the cesses into GST because if it is discussed in the Committee of Empowered Finance Ministers, they may also have the same opinion; but I can’t second-guess them.

Thank you very much, Sir, for the time.

States should frame own Motor Vehicle norms: Mamata Banerjee

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Lashing out at the Centre over its excessive interference that was affecting the federal structure, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that the Motor Vehicle Act does not give provision to deal with every traffic problem in the state.

She said Bengal, and other States, should have their own Act and frame rules and regulations to deal with the traffic problem.

“Motor vehicle laws are framed by the Centre. I believe that states must also have the power to make such laws. We will raise the issue of road safety in Parliament… We will not allow interference in the federal structure. I think states must have an Act,” she said.

The Chief Minister maintained, “We always appreciate good work. But excessive interference would affect the federal structure. Implementation of cess is a new technique to raise money. Money is being collected by implementing the higher rates of cess but the state government is getting nothing.”