Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said that the government is working on a target date of April 1, 2017 for the roll out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the country.

He said that till September 16, 2017, that is one year after the provisions of the Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016 being brought into force, the Constitution empowers the central government to levy excise duty on manufacturing; and service tax on the supply of services. He added that the Act also empowers the state governments to levy sales tax or Value Added Tax (VAT) on the sale of goods till September 16, 2016.

Speaking at a meeting of Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the finance ministry, Jaitley said that so far the government is following the road map for implementation of GST as per schedule.

During the meeting, some of the major suggestions include need for absolute clarity and transparency with regard to where taxes will be collected, assessed and where the appeal will be filed in case of GST regime.

The members said that it will be challenging task to tackle complex situation arising-out of implementation of GST law in a federal system. Some of the members suggested there is a need for launching a large scale awareness campaign especially for the small traders as most of them are still unaware about the complex procedures and processes under GST regime including for registration and filing of returns. Some of the members suggested that availability of IT network in all parts of the country, especially in small towns and rural areas, must be ensured as GST system will work only online.
 

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