What is GST? Goods & Services Tax Law Explained for Beginners

What is GST? Goods & Services Tax Law Explained for Beginners
The Goods and Services Tax or GST is scheduled to be launched on the 1st of July, and it is set to revolutionize the way we do our taxes. But what is GST and how will it reform the current tax structure? And most importantly, why does the country need such a huge overhaul in its taxation policies? We answer these pressing questions in this in-depth article.

Contents :
1. What is GST?
2. Why is Goods and Services Tax so Important?
3. How does GST work?
4. How will GST help India and common man?
5. GST Law in India – A Detailed History
6. Summary

What is GST?
Goods & Services Tax is a comprehensive, multi-stage, destination-based tax that will be levied on every value addition.

To understand this, we need to understand the concepts under this definition. Let us start with the term ‘Multi-stage’. Now, there are multiple steps an item goes through from manufacture or production to the final sale. Buying of raw materials is the first stage. The second stage is production or manufacture. Then, there is the warehousing of materials. Next, comes the sale of the product to the retailer. And in the final stage, the retailer sells you – the end consumer – the product, completing its life cycle.

So, if we had to look at a pictorial description of the various stages, it would look like:

Goods and Services Tax will be levied on each of these stages, which makes it a multi-stage tax. How? We will see that shortly, but before that, let us talk about ‘Value Addition’.

Let us assume that a manufacturer wants to make a shirt. For this he must buy yarn. This gets turned into a shirt after manufacture. So, the value of the yarn is increased when it gets woven into a shirt. Then, the manufacturer sells it to the warehousing agent who attaches labels and tags to each shirt. That is another addition of value after which the warehouse sells it to the retailer who packages each shirt separately and invests in marketing of the shirt thus increasing its value.

GST will be levied on these value additions – the monetary worth added at each stage to achieve the final sale to the end customer.

There is one more term we need to talk about in the definition – Destination-Based. Goods and Services Tax will be levied on all transactions happening during the entire manufacturing chain. Earlier, when a product was manufactured, the centre would levy an Excise Duty on the manufacture, and then the state will add a VAT tax when the item is sold to the next stage in the cycle. Then there would be a VAT at the next point of sale.

So, earlier the pattern of tax levy was like this:

Now, Goods and Services Tax will be levied at every point of sale. Assume that the entire manufacture process is happening in Rajasthan and the final point of sale is in Karnataka. Since Goods & Services Tax is levied at the point of consumption, so the state of Rajasthan will get revenue in the manufacturing and warehousing stages, but lose out on the revenue when the product moves out Rajasthan and reaches the end consumer in Karnataka. This means that Karnataka will earn that revenue on the final sale, because it is a destination-based tax and this revenue will be collected at the final point of sale/destination which is Karnataka.

Why is Goods and Services Tax so Important?
So, now that we have defined GST, let us talk about why it will play such a significant role in transforming the current tax structure, and therefore, the economy.

Currently, the Indian tax structure is divided into two – Direct and Indirect Taxes. Direct Taxes are levies where the liability cannot be passed on to someone else. An example of this is Income Tax where you earn the income and you alone are liable to pay the tax on it.

In the case of Indirect Taxes, the liability of the tax can be passed on to someone else. This means that when the shopkeeper must pay VAT on his sale, he can pass on the liability to the customer. So, in effect, the customer pays the price of the item as well as the VAT on it so the shopkeeper can deposit the VAT to the government. This means that the customer must pay not just the price of the product, but he also pays the tax liability, and therefore, he has a higher outlay when he buys an item.

This happens because the shopkeeper has paid a tax when he bought the item from the wholesaler. To recover that amount, as well as to make up for the VAT he must pay to the government, he passes the liability to the customer who has to pay the additional amount. There is currently no other way for the shopkeeper to recover whatever he pays from his own pocket during transactions and therefore, he has no choice but to pass on the liability to the customer.

Goods and Services Tax will address this issue after it is implemented. It has a system of Input Tax Credit which will allow sellers to claim the tax already paid, so that the final liability on the end consumer is decreased.

How does GST work?
A nationwide tax reform cannot function without strict guidelines and provisions. The GST Council has devised a fool proof method of implementing this new tax regime by dividing it into three categories. Wondering how they work? Let our experts explain this to you in detail.
When Goods and Services Tax is implemented, there will be 3 kinds of applicable Goods and Services Taxes:

CGST: where the revenue will be collected by the central government

SGST: where the revenue will be collected by the state governments for intra-state sales

IGST: where the revenue will be collected by the central government for inter-state sales

In most cases, the tax structure under the new regime will be as follows:

    Transaction           New Regime                     Old Regime                                                     Comments
Sale within the state       CGST + SGST    VAT + Central Excise/Service tax            Revenue will now be shared between the Centre and the State
Sale to another State      IGST                  Central Sales Tax + Excise/Service Tax   There will only be one type of tax (central) now in case of inter-state sales.

Example
A dealer in Maharashtra sold goods to a consumer in Maharashtra worth Rs. 10,000. The Goods and Services Tax rate is 18% comprising CGST rate of 9% and SGST rate of 9%. In such cases the dealer collects Rs. 1800 and of this amount, Rs. 900 will go to the central government and Rs. 900 will go to the Maharashtra government.

Now, let us assume the dealer in Maharashtra had sold goods to a dealer in Gujarat worth Rs. 10,000. The GST rate is 18% comprising of CGST rate of 9% and SGST rate of 9%. In such case the dealer has to charge Rs. 1800 as IGST. This IGST will go to the Centre. There will no longer be any need to pay CGST and SGST.

How will GST help India and common man?
The basis of Goods and Services Tax is the seamless flow of Input Tax Credit (ITC) along the entire value addition chain. At every step of the manufacturing process, businesses will have the option to claim the tax already paid in the previous transaction. Understanding this process is crucial for businesses. A detailed explanation here.
To understand this, let us first understand what is Input Tax Credit. It is the credit an individual receives for the tax paid on the inputs used in manufacturing the product. So, if there is a 10% tax that the individual must submit to the government, he can subtract the amount he has paid in taxes at the time of purchase and submit the balance amount to the government.

Let us understand this with a hypothetical numerical example.

Say a shirt manufacturer pays Rs. 100 to buy raw materials. If the rate of taxes is set at 10%, and there is no profit or loss involved, then he has to pay Rs. 10 as tax. So, the final cost of the shirt now becomes Rs (100+10=) 110.

At the next stage, the wholesaler buys the shirt from the manufacturer at Rs. 110, and adds labels to it. When he is adding labels, he is adding value. Therefore, his cost increases by say Rs. 40. On top of this, he has to pay a 10% tax, and the final cost therefore becomes Rs. (110+40=) 150 + 10% tax = Rs. 165.

Now, the retailer pays Rs. 165 to buy the shirt from the wholesaler because the tax liability had passed on to him. He has to package the shirt, and when he does that, he is adding value again. This time, let’s say his value add is Rs. 30. Now when he sells the shirt, he adds this value (plus the VAT he has to pay the government) to the final cost. So, the cost of the shirt becomes Rs. 214.5 Let us see a breakup for this:

Cost = Rs. 165 + Value add = Rs. 30 + 10% tax = Rs. 195 + Rs. 19.5 = Rs. 214.5

So, the customer pays Rs. 214.5 for a shirt the cost price of which was basically only Rs. 170 (Rs 110 + Rs. 40 + Rs. 30). Along the way the tax liability was passed on at every stage of transaction and the final liability comes to rest with the customer. This is called the Cascading Effect of Taxes where a tax is paid on tax and the value of the item keeps increasing every time this happens.

Action                                        Cost 10%               Tax                              Total
Buys Raw Material @ 100         100                        10                                  110
Manufactures @ 40                    150                        15                                  165
Adds value @ 30                        195                        19.5                                214.5
Total                                            170                        44.5                               214.5

In the case of Goods and Services Tax, there is a way to claim credit for tax paid in acquiring input. What happens in this case is, the individual who has paid a tax already can claim credit for this tax when he submits his taxes.

In our example, when the wholesaler buys from the manufacturer, he pays a 10% tax on his cost price because the liability has been passed on to him. Then he adds value of Rs. 40 on his cost price of Rs. 100 and this brings up his cost to Rs. 140. Now he has to pay 10% of this price to the government as tax. But he has already paid one tax to the manufacturer. So, this time what he does is, instead of paying Rs (10% of 140=) 14 to the government as tax, he subtracts the amount he has paid already. So, he deducts the Rs. 10 he paid on his purchase from his new liability of Rs. 14, and pays only Rs. 4 to the government. So, the Rs. 10 becomes his input credit.

When he pays Rs. 4 to the government, he can pass on its liability to the retailer. So, the retailer pays Rs. (140+14=) 154 to him to buy the shirt. At the next stage, the retailer adds value of Rs. 30 to his cost price and has to pay a 10% tax on it to the government. When he adds value, his price becomes Rs. 170. Now, if he had to pay 10% tax on it, he would pass on the liability to the customer. But he already has input credit because he has paid Rs.14 to the wholesaler as the latter’s tax. So, now he reduces Rs. 14 from his tax liability of Rs. (10% of 170=) 17 and has to pay only Rs. 3 to the government. And therefore, he can now sell the shirt for Rs. (140+30+17) 187 to the customer.

Action                           Cost 10%          Tax            Actual Liability                  Total
Buys Raw Material           100 10 10                                110
Manufactures @ 40           140 14 4                                 154
Adds Value @ 30 170 17                       3                                 187
Total 170 17                                 187

In the end, every time an individual was able to claim input tax credit, the sale price for him reduced and the cost price for the person buying his product reduced because of a lower tax liability. The final value of the shirt also therefore reduced from Rs. 214.5 to Rs. 187, thus reducing the tax burden on the final customer.

So essentially, Goods & Services Tax is going to have a two-pronged benefit. One, it will reduce the cascading effect of taxes, and second, by allowing input tax credit, it will reduce the burden of taxes and, hopefully, prices.

GST Law in India – A Detailed History
GST is not a new phenomenon. It was first implemented in France in 1954, and since then many countries have implemented this unified taxation system to become part of a global whole. Now that India is adopting this new tax regime, let us look back at the how and when of the Goods and Services Tax and its history in the nation.
France was the world’s first country to implement GST Law in the year 1954. Since then, 159 other countries have adopted the GST Law in some form or other. In many countries, VAT is the substitute for GST, but unlike the Indian VAT system, these countries have a single VAT tax which fulfills the same purpose as GST.

In India, the discussion on GST Law was flagged off in the year 2000, when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee brought the issue to the table.

History of GST in India – Year by Year Events

Summary
The idea behind having one consolidated indirect tax to subsume multiple currently existing indirect taxes is to benefit the Indian economy in a number of ways:

It will help the country’s businesses gain a level playing field
It will put us on par with foreign nations who have a more structured tax system
It will also translate into gains for the end consumer who not have to pay cascading taxes any more
There will now be a single tax on goods and services
In addition to the above,

The Goods and Services Tax Law aims at streamlining the indirect taxation regime. As mentioned above, GST will subsume all indirect taxes levied on goods and service, including State and Central level taxes. The GST mechanism is an advancement on the VAT system, the idea being that a unified GST Law will create a seamless nationwide market.
It is also expected that Goods and Services Tax will improve the collection of taxes as well as boost the development of Indian economy by removing the indirect tax barriers between states and integrating the country through a uniform tax rate.

Courtesy : discountwalas

                            

SBI Savings Account: Minimum Balance Rules And Non-Maintenance Charges

For SBI account holders in urban areas other than metros, semi-urban and rural areas, the monthly average balance requirements are Rs. 3,000, Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 1,000 respectively.

SBI or State Bank of India charges a penalty up to Rs. 100 (excluding GST of 18 per cent) per month for not maintaining monthly average balance in savings bank accounts. Banks can levy charges on non-maintenance of minimum balance in normal savings accounts. Customers holding SBI savings bank accounts in metro, urban, semi-urban and rural branches need to pay different penalty amounts for non-maintenance of MAB (monthly average balance), according to SBI website. SBI has specified penalty for various ranges of shortfall for its savings bank customers, according to the four categories of branches.

For example, if your SBI savings bank account is in one of the metro city branches, you need to maintain a monthly average balance of Rs. 5,000. Also, if the average balance maintained during a month comes out to be between zero and Rs. 1,500, or a shortfall of more than 75 per cent, a non-maintenance charge of Rs. 100 plus taxes will be levied. In case the average balance remains within Rs. 1,500 and Rs. 2,500, which means a shortfall of less than 75 per cent and more than 50 per cent, a charge of Rs. 75 plus taxes will be levied, SBI has said.


Meanwhile, for savings accounts with average balance of more than Rs. 2,500, SBI will charge a penalty of Rs. 50, plus taxes.

However, for account holders in urban areas other than metros, semi-urban and rural areas, the MAB requirements are Rs. 3,000, Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 1,000 respectively. Here are the details of penalty for not maintaining MAB for these accounts.


How to avoid fine under SBI’s minimum balance rules

“A regular review of your account will help you to ensure the average monthly balance is maintained and avoid the minimal charges,” SBI has said on microblogging site Twitter.

Courtesy : Thinkur

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GST rates: Here’s your complete guide

GST rates: Here’s your complete guide :

Most of the goods and services have been listed under the four broad tax slabs – 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent. Some items like gold and rough diamonds have exclusive tax rates while some have been exempted from taxation.

As India wakes up to a new tax regime, here is a quick guide to all the goods and services and their respective tax slabs:

Tax exempted 

Goods

A number of food items have been exempted from any of the tax slabs. Fresh meat, fish, chicken, eggs, milk, butter milk, curd, natural honey, fresh fruits and vegetables, flour, besan, bread, all kinds of salt, jaggery and hulled cereal grains have been kept out of the taxation system.

Bindi, sindoor, kajal, palmyra, human hair and bangles also do not attract any tax under GST.

Drawin .. or colouring books alongside stamps, judicial papers, printed books, newspapers also fall under this category.

Other items in the exempted list include jute and handloom, Bones and horn cores, hoof meal, horn meal, bone grist, bone meal, etc.

Services

Grandfathering service has been exempted under GST.

A low budget holiday may get cheaper as hotels and lodges with tariff below Rs 1,000 are in this category.

Rough precious and semi-precious stones will attract GST rate of 0.25 per cent.

5% tax 

Goods

An array of food items such as fish fillet, packaged food items, cream, skimmed milk powder, branded paneer, frozen vegetables, coffee, tea, spices, pizza bread, rusk, sabudana, cashew nut, cashew nut in shell, raisin, ice and snow will be priced at 5 per cent tax.

Apparel below Rs 1000 and footwear below Rs 500 are also in this category.

Some items in the fuel category like bio gas, kerosene and coal are in this slab.

Items from the health industry in this category include medicine, insulin and stent.

Other items in this slab are agarbatti (incense sticks), kites, postage or revenue stamps, stamp-post marks, fertilizers, first-day covers and lifeboats.

Services

Transport services like railways and air travel fall under this category.

Small restaurants will also be under the 5% category

Gold has been taxed under a separate slab of 3 per cent.

12% tax 

Goods

Yet another category of edibles like frozen meat products, butter, cheese, ghee, dry fruits in packaged form, animal fat, sausage, fruit juices, namkeen and ketchup & sauces will attract 12 per cent tax.

Cellphones will also be priced in this category.

Cutlery items like Spoons, forks, ladles, skimmers, cake servers, fish knives, tongs fall in this slab.

Ayurvedic medicines and all diagnostic kits and reagents are taxed at 12 per cent.

Utility items like tooth powder, umbrella, sewing machine and spectacles and indoor game items like playing cards, chess board, carom board and other board games like ludo are in this slab.

Apparel above Rs 1000 will attract 12 per cent tax.

Services

Non-AC hotels, business class air ticket, state-run lottery, work contracts will fall under 12 per cent GST tax slab

18% tax 

Goods

Another set of consumables are listed under the 18 per cent category- biscuits, flavoured refined sugar, pasta, cornflakes, pastries and cakes, preserved vegetables, jams, sauces, soups, ice cream, instant food mixes, curry paste, mayonnaise and salad dressings, mixed condiments and mixed seasonings and mineral water.

Footwear costing more than Rs 500 are in this category.

Items like Printed circuits, camera, speakers and monitors, printers (other than multi function printers), electrical transformer, CCTV, optical fiber are priced at 18 per cent tax under GST.

Other items in this slab include bidi leaves, tissues, envelopes, sanitary napkins, note books, steel products, kajal pencil sticks, headgear and its parts, aluminium foil, weighing machinery (other than electric or electronic weighing machinery), bamboo furniture, swimming pools and padding pools.

Services

AC hotels that serve liquor, telecom services, IT services, branded garments and financial services will attract 18 per cent tax under GST.

28% tax 

Goods

The residuary set of edibles which include chewing gum, molasses, chocolate not containing cocoa, waffles and wafers coated with choclate, pan masala and aerated water fall in this category.

Bidi attracts 28 per cent tax.

n array of personal care items like deodorants, shaving creams, after shave, hair shampoo, dye and sunscreen are in the highest tax slab as well.

Paint, wallpaper and ceramic tiles are priced at 28 per cent.

Water heater, dishwasher, weighing machine, washing machine, ATM, vending machines, vacuum cleaner, shavers and hair clippers have been clubbed together in this slab.

Automobiles, motorcycles and aircraft for personal use will attract 28 % tax – the highest under GST system.

Services

5-star hotels, race club betting, private lottery and movie tickets above Rs 100 are under the 28 per cent category.

The GST on restaurants in five-star and luxury hotels has been reduced to 18 per cent from 28 per cent, bringing it at par with standalone air-conditioned (AC) restaurants. Even at some air-conditioned restaurants, the bills may come down, as GST will subsume service tax and value-added tax (VAT) that is currently charged.

Courtesy : discountwalas

                                   

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