[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Sri R. Krishnamurthy, President along with Office Bearers and MCMs attended the Interaction Meeting on VAT & GST with Sri Ritvik Pandey, IAS, Commissioner, Commercial Taxes at KASSIA Auditorium on Feb 22.
Interacting with the participants, the PIA President said Peenya Industries Association had held five Awareness Programmes on GST Migration for the benefit 
of MSME entrepreneurs in Peenya and surrounding areas. He complimented Sri Ritvik Pandey, IAS, Commissioner, Commercial Taxes for enabling Karnataka to be the number one State in GST preparedness. He also appreciated the various ease of doing business initiatives undertaken by the Commercial Taxes Department which had reduced the number of complaints about taxes.
The multiple levies, including VAT, service tax, central sales tax (CST), central excise duty, entry tax, entertainment tax and luxury tax will be subsumed under the unified tax and business persons registered separately under VAT, CST, and service tax have to register afresh under the GST.
The GST enrolment started on January 1, 2017 across India with an objective of covering over 86 lakh traders on or before March 15, 2017. Anyone with a business turnover of Rs 20 lakh and beyond will be covered by GST.
CBEC issues clarification on finalization of rates under GST: Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has issued a clarification via it’s twitter handle on finalization of product and service specific rates.
There are some reports in media that GST rates of specific products and services have been finalized. In wake of these false reports, CBEC has clarified that rates have not been finalized as yet.
Under GST, HSN (Harmonised System of Nomenclature) code shall be used for classifying the goods under the GST regime. Services will be classified as per the Services Accounting Code (SAC).
GST council had finalised broad buckets wherein 4 tier rate structure would be followed – 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. Apart from these, some goods/services will be exempt from tax and some demerit goods could carry ‘cess’ over and above their tax slab rate.
The GST Council had also proposed to raise the peak tax rate to 20 per cent, from the current 14 per cent, in the model goods and services tax Bill to preclude the requirement of approaching Parliament for any change in rates in future.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
