FM inaugurates the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN) Campus in Bengaluru today

Inaugurating the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN) Campus in the Bengaluru today, the Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley said that Indirect Taxation regime in the country will play a key role and is undergoing a vital change.  He said that the present multiple taxation system is transformed into the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and all the taxes are amalgamated. Speaking further, the Finance Minister said that the new GST regime will come into effect from July 1, 2017. GST is an efficient tax system which not only checks tax evasion but it also help evolving India to become very strong society.

Speaking further on the occasion, the Finance Minister Shri Jaitley said that the new Indirect Tax is a product of federal India. He added that the Centre and the States will jointly administer and decide the taxes.  Coordination between taxation authority of Centre and States is also important. He said that the tax training academy NACIN, which has come-up in Bengaluru to impart training to officers of Central and State Governments and PSUs has to play a vital role.

Participating on the occasion, Smt.Vanaja N. Sarna, Chairperson, CBEC highlighted the contributions of NACIN.  Shri D.P.Nagendra Kumar, Principal Director General, NACIN, gave an overview of the new NACIN Complex.  Shri S.Ramesh, Member (Admn.), CBIC welcomed the dignitaries on this occasion while Shri P. K. Dash, Pr. Additonal Director General, NACIN, proposed vote of thanks.

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The panel, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising representatives of all States, at its last meeting approved the final draft of Central GST (C-GST) and Integrated GST (I-GST) laws.

The GST council also agreeing on capping the cess on sin (tobacco products) and luxury goods has been capped at 15 per cent, Jaitley said after the meeting.

“Capping of cess has been done. These are not actual, but, ceiling is kept higher to give a marginal headspace,” he said.

“The supporting GST laws will now be taken to the Cabinet and then to Parliament for approval,” he said.

Jaitley also said the government was hopeful that GST could be “tentatively” implemented from July.

The GST Council would meet on March 31 for framing of rules for Goods and Service Tax regime, Jaitley said, adding that tax rates for various goods and services would be taken up after framing of rules.

After March 31, the Council will take up the exercise of fitment of various commodities in the GST tax slabs – 5 %, 12%, 15%  and 28%, he added.

The officials have already started the fitment process, which will be put up for discussion and approval before the Council.

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As per the budget documents, the workforce of the central government establishments would be 35.67 lakh in 2018

New Delhi: Nearly 2.83 lakh central government jobs are estimated to be generated by next year. This projection has been made in the Union Budget for 2017-18 presented last week by finance minister Arun Jaitley.

As per the budget documents, the workforce of the central government establishments would be 35.67 lakh in 2018, about 2.83 lakh more than the actual head count of 32.84 lakh in 2016. The home ministry will add 6,076 more personnel to take its strength to 24,778 in 2018. About 1.06 lakh more workforce will be added in police departments to take the total head count to 11,13,689 by next year.

The strength of police departments under the central government is 10,07,366, as per the 2016 data. There will be an estimated increase of 2,109 persons in the external affairs ministry as against its actual strength of 9,294 in 2016, it said.

In newly created ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship, the government has estimated to add 2,027 jobs by 2018. Its actual strength in 2016 was 53 only. Minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions Jitendra Singh on Sunday said the additional workforce will help in providing more citizen-centric governance.

“The central government is trying to emphasise more on employability of our youths rather then employment. That is why the skill development ministry has been started. It will train more youths to become entrepreneur and be job-ready in changing scenario. “The projection of additional workforce will help in providing more citizen centric governance,” he said.

There would be an estimated 1,045 more staff in 2018 in the ministry of civil aviation from its actual strength of 1,141 in 2016. In the department of posts, there would be 20,442 more workforce from its strength of 4,48,840.

The ministry of environment, forest and climate change will add 2,165 more jobs in next year to take its strength to 5,094. An estimated 91 people will be part of the workforce in the minority affairs ministry in 2018, in addition to its actual strength of 169 in 2016.

The mines ministry will have 1,351 more jobs to take its strength to 9,481 and the department of space will have an estimated 17,894 personnel, 3,068 more than its strength of 14,826. The personnel ministry will have 2,367 more personnel in 2018 than its actual strength of 8,443 in 2016. Whereas, the ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation will have a workforce of 11,407 in 2018, 3,632 more than its actual strength of 7,775 in 2016.

PTI

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today proposed to reduce the tax rate for income up to Rs 5 lakh from the existing 10 per cent to 5 per cent while imposing 10 per cent surcharge on income between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore.
Following is the table of impact on individual on tax proposals:

INCOME TAX RATE IMPACT

1. (Individual Tax Payers) Up to Rs 2,50,000 NIL NIL Rs 2,50,001 to Rs 5,00,000 5% Rs 7,725 (Savings)
2. (Senior Citizens 60 years but less than 80 years) Up to Rs 3,00,000 NIL NIL Rs 3,00,001 to Rs 5,00,000 5% Rs 2,575 (Savings) Rs 5,00,001 to Rs 10,00,000 20% Rs 7,725 (Savings)
3. (Senior Citizens 80 years and above) Up to Rs 5,00,000 NIL NIL Rs 5,00,001 to Rs 10,00,000 20% Rs 7,725 (Savings) (Surcharge of 10 per cent on income of all individuals above Rs 50 lakh and less than Rs 1 crore and surcharge of 15 per cent on income above Rs 1 crore).

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“Finance Minister Shri Jaitley said that the present burden of taxation is mainly on honest tax payers and salaried employees who are showing their income correctly. Therefore, post-demonetisation, there is a legitimate expectation of this class of people to reduce their burden of taxation.”

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Finance

01-February-2017 14:11 IST

Finance Minister reduces the tax rate from 10 to 5 per cent for individual income between Rs 2.5 to Rs 5 lakh.

Finance Minister appeals to all citizens to contribute to Nation Building by making a small payment of 5 per cent tax if their income is falling in this slab.

A simple one- page Income Tax Return form for the category of individuals having taxable income upto Rs 5 lakhs other than business income

The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley reduced the rate of taxation from existing 10 per cent to 5 per cent for individual assesses between income of Rs 2.5 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs. This would reduce the tax liability of all persons below Rs 5 lakh income either to zero (with rebate) or 50 per cent of their existing liability.

While presenting the General Budget 2017-18 in the Parliament today, the Union Finance Minister Shri Jaitley said that the present burden of taxation is mainly on honest tax payers and salaried employees who are showing their income correctly. Therefore, post-demonetisation, there is a legitimate expectation of this class of people to reduce their burden of taxation. The Finance Minister further said that if a nominal rate of taxation is kept for lower slab, many more people will prefer to come within the tax net. The Finance Minister made an appeal to all the citizens of India to contribute to Nation Building by making a small payment of 5 per cent tax if their income is falling in the lowest slab of Rs 2.5 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs.

The Union Finance Minister Shri Jaitley said that the Government is trying to bring within tax-net more people who are evading taxes. So, in order to expand tax net, it is decided to have a simple one-page form to be filed as Income Tax Return for the category of individuals having taxable income upto Rs 5 lakhs other than business income. Also, a person of this category who files income tax return for the first time would not be subjected to any scrutiny in the first year unless there is specific information available with the Department regarding his high value transaction.

In his Budget Speech, the Finance Minister further said that in order not to have duplication of benefit, the existing benefit of rebate available to the same group of beneficiaries is being reduced to Rs 2500, available only to assessees upto income of Rs 3.5 lakhs. The combined effect of both these measures will mean that there would be zero tax liability for people getting income upto Rs 3 lakhs per annum. and the tax liability will only be Rs 2,500 for people with income between Rs 3 and Rs 3.5 lakhs. While the taxation liability of people with income upto Rs 5 lakhs is being reduced to half, all the other categories of tax payers in the subsequent slabs will also get a uniform benefit of Rs 12,500 per person. The total amount of tax foregone on account of this measure is Rs 15,500 crore.

In order to make good some of this revenue loss on account of this relief, a surcharge of 10 per cent of tax payable on categories of individuals whose annual taxable income is between Rs 50 lakhs and Rs 1 crore has been proposed. This is likely to give additional revenue of Rs 2,700 crore.

The Finance Minister said that the direct tax proposals for exemptions, etc. would result in revenue loss of Rs 22,700 crore but after counting for revenue gain of Rs 2,700 crore for additional resource mobilisation proposal, the net revenue loss in direct tax would come to Rs 20,000 crore.

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New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may hike service tax rate to 16-18 per cent from the current 15 per cent in the Budget, due on Wednesday, as a precursor to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rollout.

The move, that will make flying, eating out, phone bills and a host of other services expensive, would be an attempt to take the rates closer to the proposed tax slabs for GST.

GST, which will subsume central and state levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT, is scheduled to be rolled out from July 1.

The tax slabs decided for the GST are 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent and taking service tax closer to one of the slabs is a logical move in the Budget, tax experts said.

Tax experts say, Jaitley, who had in his previous budget hiked service tax rate by 0.5 per cent to 15 per cent, may raise the levy by at least one percentage point to 16 per cent.

Some others feel there could be different service tax rates with a lower 12 per cent for basic services and a higher 18 per cent for the rest.

Also, a higher service tax for April-June will help the government garner more revenue to meet expenses on schemes and programmes it may be planning to contain the impact of demonetisation.

A service tax rate closer to the GST rate will also help consumers avoid a greater price shock when the new national sales tax is rolled out.

While service tax until now is a central levy, it will be equally split between the Centre and states under the new GST regime. Most services, except essential ones like primary healthcare and basic education, will be covered by GST.

Service tax was budgeted to provide Rs 2.31 lakh crore in 2016-17, more than 14 per cent of the Centre’s total tax revenues of Rs 16.30 lakh crore.

This will be the third time that Jaitley will raise service tax rate. Service tax from June 1, 2015 was hiked from 12.36 per cent to 14 per cent. A 0.5 per cent Swachh Bharat Cess was levied on all services, taking the total incidence of service tax to 14.5 per cent from November 15, 2015.

In the last Budget, he imposed a Krishi Kalyan Cess at the rate of 0.5 per cent on all taxable services to take the levy to 15 per cent.

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Opposing some recent decisions taken by GST Council, various indirect tax officials’ associations today decided to start non-cooperation movement.

To start with, the employees associations will not celebrate international customs day on Friday. Besides, they will observe ‘black day’ by wearing black badges on Martyrs’ Day, i.E. January 30, as per minutes of meeting held among their representatives here.

The associations said that their members are “highly disappointed” and feel “cheated” over the decisions taken by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley-led GST Council in its meeting on January 16.

The Council had agreed to give states the powers to levy tax on economic activity within 12 nautical miles of territorial waters and to administer 90 per cent of the tax payers under Rs 1.5 crore annual turnover.

“We feel that the biggest tax reform of the century should have been in conformity with the principles of responsibility and authority going together and also in conformity with the Constitutional design. We feel that the decision shall weaken the Centre’s ability to ensure its revenues.

“The decision will not only adversely affect the career of revenue officers but it is not in national interest. We oppose the decisions taken by GST Council and requests for deferment and review of above inappropriate and incorrect decisions,” as per the minutes of meeting of steering committee of associations representing Group A, B and C employees of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).

The decision came after a meeting of representatives of Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise), All India Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers, All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association and All India Central Excise and Service Tax Ministerial Officers Association, comprising 70,000 personnel, here, office bearers said.

According to them, the decision taken by GST Council in its January 16, meeting will not only weaken the Centre but also adversely affect the Indian economy and revenue collection but also national security.

They have decided to request authorities concerned to take immediate necessary action to resolve the issues and to defer the unjustified decision of GST Council taken under pressure of state VAT officers.

“We feel that if the above genuine demands in national and revenue interest are not considered then this disciplined service will be forced to initiate non-cooperation movement following Gandhian methods of Satyagraha,” the associations said.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is likely to be rolled out from July 1, as against April 1 decided earlier by the government.

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New Delhi: Most services are likely to attract a tax of 18 percent under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the Union Budget on February 1.
It will be interesting to witness whether the Centre raises the service tax rate from the existing 15 percent by at least one percentage point to 16 percent as a precursor to the rollout of GST.

However, the Centre and states have agreed to rollout GST from July 1, 2017, after which most services will turn costlier.

Also, a higher service tax, even for three months, will help the Centre partially offset the revenue loss after the GST kicks in, sources indicated.

Under GST, the service tax collections will be divided equally between the Centre and the states. A service tax closer to the GST rate will also help consumers avoid a greater price shock after the new system is rolled out.

Jaitley-headed GST Council has agreed on a four-slab structure -5, 12, 18 and 28 percent-along with a cess on luxury and ‘sin’ goods such as tobacco.

Within these, two standard rates of 12 percent and 18 percent could extend to a majority of the taxable goods.

ANI

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New Delhi: The GST Council, which began 2-day deliberations here today, is likely to shortly finalise a 4-tier tax structure with some tinkering of the Centre’s proposal.

The Centre has proposed 4-tier tax structure of 6, 12, 18 and 26 per cent, the peak rate being for FMCG and consumer durables.

According to sources, the Council comprising state finance ministers and headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may opt for a lower rate of 5 per cent instead of the proposed 6 per cent.

The members may agree to raise the higher slab to 28 per cent rate from the proposed 26 per cent.

They may retain the 12 per cent and 18 per cent rate for certain categories under the Goods and Services Tax regime.

Sources also said that certain states are in favour of 40 per cent tax rate on tobacco.

The meeting will have to sort out the issues concerning tax rate to enable Parliament to approve the Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) legislations in the Winter Session beginning November 16 and pave the way for rollout of the new indirect tax regime from April 1 next year.

A state finance minister said “mood in the meeting is very good” and the Council is expected to seal the rate structure by evening.

On the issue of dual control or cross empowerment, another state minister said that there would be a generic line in the CGST Bill regarding jurisdiction of centre and states on taxes. The final touches would be given by GST Council.

As per the slab proposed the Centre, the items which are currently taxed between 3-9 per cent would fall in the 6 per cent bracket; those in 9-15 per cent range would come under 12 per cent rate.

Those products which are currently taxed between 15-21 per cent would attract 18 per cent levy while those above 21 per cent would be taxed at the peak rate of 26 per cent.

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New Delhi: As many as 10 central trade unions will go ahead with the general strike on Friday saying the government gave no heed to their 12-point charter of demands and is continuing with unilateral labour reforms.

CTUs claimed that over 15 crore workers are likely to participate in the strike and it will be bigger than the one held last year as members of BMS will also support them.

RSS-affiliated Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) is the only major trade union which has opted out of strike – like last year – which was also held on September 2, in view of the assurances given by the government.

“Some leaders of Bmshave decided not to go on strike. But its state units would participate in the strike. Workers will give a befitting reply to the dubious activities inspired by the government,” CITU General Secretary Tapan Sen said here in a joint press conference by 10 CTUs here.

CTUs reiterate the call for countrywide general strike on September 2 against the “anti-worker and anti-people policies” of the government and in view of its “utterly unresponsive and undemocratic attitude”, Sen added.

All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) Secretary Amarjeet Kaur said the unions view the announcements made by Ministers’ panel, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, as an eyewash.

“It is like cheating the people,” she said, adding that this time the number will be bigger than 15 crore who participated in the general strike last year and more than 10 states will have bandh-like situation.

Strike is going to be complete in industrial sectors such as transport, financial, power, coal, textile, port and dock, automobile, steel, oil, defence production, scheme, education and Central and State government employees, Kaur added.

Referring to BMS decision not to participate in the strike, Kaur said: “Government has not had a single meeting with the CTUs in over a year and is talking to those (BMS) who have not given a strike notice.”

Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) Vice President Ashok Singh said: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his fight is with poverty, but it seems his fight is with the poor in this country. The government’s decision are totally pro-capitalist.”

CTUs expressed dismay over “utterly negative” attitude of the government on basic demands of workers on minimum wages as per consensus formulation of Indian Labour Conference, on universal social security including pension for all workers including those in unorganised sector, among others.

They added that government is dragging its feet over the mass scale contractorisation of permanent and perennial work.

Attacking the government’s initiatives on labour reforms, the unions said: “All these proactive initiatives militate against the basic interests and rights of the working people. Even the non-striking CTU (BMS) also officially recorded its opposition.

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