India cuts GST ‘negative list’

India has reduced the number of goods which would be classified as exempt from the proposed Goods & Services Tax.

The goods include many basic foodstuffs, including: coffee; tea; biscuits and medicines. These are currently exempt from Excise Duty, and are listed on the exhaustive ‘negative’ list which details over 300 exempt supplies. It is anticipated that GST will have only approximately 90 goods exempted.

GST was scheduled to be introduced in April 2016. However, political disputes mean this is likely to be delayed until September 2016 or even 2017.  It will replace a range of overlapping taxes, including: VAT, CENVAT, Professional Tax and Service Tax.