India Inc stakeholders react to passage of GST Bill

*Rahul Singh- Founder & CEO, The Beer Cafe
“This is by far one of the key initiative which will catapult India’s economy. Currently, various tax heads of state vat, central service tax and cess will get subsumed into a singular GST which would provide efficiency and ease of compliance for a restaurant chain like ours. However, as alco-beverage has been kept away from the purview of GST, it would be double the paperwork and incur extra cost which will eventually be paid by the consumers. Also, states will have a free hand to levy any tax on alco-beverage products and they will certainly keep it high to fill their exchequer.”
*Jason Kothari, CEO, Housing.com 
“The GST Bill, which was passed in the Rajya Sabha and is being touted as India’s biggest tax reform, has been a long-standing request of the real estate sector that has been plagued by multiple layers of taxation. While the immediate benefits of the GST are expected to go to segments like logistics and warehousing, and retail – residential real estate, in the long term, should benefit from an unified tax regime, a lesser tax burden on construction materials like cement, steel, etc. This, in turn, can lead to lower construction costs for developers, who can pass on the price benefit to home buyers. The tangible benefits for the home buyer will also depend on the final rate of GST.  If the rate is higher than the taxes being paid currently, it could increase the cost of an under-construction flat. However, the GST’s impact on creating a transparent taxation system and boosting business sentiments is very positive.”
* Vijay Kumar, COO, Express Industry Council of India.
“Express Industry Council of India (EICI) congratulates the Government and Opposition on the political maturity shown in unanimously passing the GST Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha. This would really help Indian economy in general and the logistics industry in particular to shake off the inefficiencies and lower transaction cost.
However for India to be truly a one Common Market, we are hopeful that the government will ensure that all the border check-posts between states would be removed.
The international import and export shipments should be zero rated under GST regime.
For International shipments to ensure seamless movements with in the country it is vital that the Customs clearance system (ICEGATE) is linked to GSTN.
Aviation Turbine Fuel is currently treated separately from other petroleum products for claiming mod vat credits and if ATF is not brought under the GST regime there would be substantial cost impact on ATF used in our member aircrafts due to cascading duties leading to price increases.
We are also hopeful that in order to lower compliance cost, network industries like express industry, banks etc will only need to do single centralised registration under the GST regime as is the case with Service Tax Registration presently.”