India steps to GST implementation

With the main India legislation now ratified for the implementation of a new Goods & Services Tax (GST), a number of steps must be undertaken before a roll out.

These include:

• Establish a GST Council to review and conclude on launch details
• Resolving the overlap between the new Central, State and Integrated taxes
• Agree a country-wide rate for the new consumption tax. This is likely to be between 16% and 18%
• Putting in place a dispute resolution and appeals processes
• Determining details of pricing policies and tax calculations on inter-state transfers of goods
• Confirm how input VAT credits will be matched to output VAT payments - a complex and controversial requirement for VAT reporting
• Agree on implementation date - potentially sometime in 2017