India Finance Bill changes to VAT and Service Tax

The latest Indian Finance Act, approved last month, has introduced a number of Indian VAT and Service Tax changes, including:

1. Service Tax Amnesty stretching back to October 2007
2. Service Tax exemptions when applied against a duty credit scrip, which are for export schemes
3. Service Tax annual return for 2012/13 reporting deadline has been extended to 31 August 2013.
4. New restrictions on the amount of Indian VAT input credits based on the amount actually transmitted to the state as part of the settlement of the output VAT collected.

India is currently planning to overhaul its complex mix of VAT, Service Tax and CENVAT by the introduction of a combined GST regime in 2014.