GST - Delegation of State Finance Ministers back from foreign tour - GST ready from 1.4.2010
West Bengal Minister for Finance Asim Dasgupta who is also the Chairman of the empowered group of finance ministers, said the taxation model of the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) is being formulated. Dasgupta and his delegation is back from a tour of Brazil and UK. His delegation included, H K Dwivedi, Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, Prof. Stephen Marandi, Deputy Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Jayant Patil, Finance Minister of Maharashtra, A K Walia, Finance Minister of Delhi, Tariq Hameed Karra, Finance Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, K N Rai, Sikkim Finance minister, Birender Singh, Finance Minister of Haryana, Kalikho Pul, Finance Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, D G Narvekar, Finance Minister of Goa, P. Shome, Adviser to the Union Finance Minister, M M Srivastava, Commissioner of Commercial Tax, Gujarat and Satish Chandra, Member Secretary of the Empowered Committee.
Dasgupta said,
++ We are formulating the GST in our own way.
++ The introduction of GST is scheduled to take place on April 1, 2010.
++ After the Union government took the decision to introduce GST, we decided to take a look at the tax structures in other countries.
++ The introduction of VAT enabled setting off tax on inputs used for production of goods. By integrating Service Tax and VAT, GST will be introduced.
++ In India, tax reforms have been on for quite some time. Prior to VAT, there were numerous tax rates.