It said the focus should be on bringing exempted items under GST net and eliminate rampant illicit trade.The GST Council at its meeting will seek to decide on the GST rates and the division of tax administration. The Centre has proposed four slabs and a fifth rate for precious metals besides a cess on ultra-luxury and tobacco products, which has not been accepted by states. Chandrajit Banerjee , director general at industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said the government should ultimately reduce the number of GST rates to one or two. “The GST should begin with an absolute limit of four rates as suggested by the government, and over time, the government should commit to converging these four rates to one or two rates,” he said.The Assocham-KPMG paper cautioned that for the telecom sector GST may negatively impact the working capital cost since initial landed price of purchases, including imports, may increase due to higher tax rates. GST is likely to be based on minimal exemptions regime, leading to increase in the tax cost for the food processing industry and inflation

Source: Economic Times November 02, 2016 20:00 UTC