A seminar on explaining the nuances of the upcoming GST structure was held today at UCCI auditorium. M.C. Dinesh, President of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industries  along with Dr Jacob Crasta, Co-Chairman of Assocham were the key speakers.

Following were the key takeaways from M.C. Dinesh’s address to the audience:

• GST is no revolutionary structure. The system is already in place in 170 other countries of the world
• India is the only country in the world where each state currently has a different structure
• Implementation of GST will lead to uniform tax structure across the nation and will help in improving the GDP growth rate of the country
• Apprehension of people that all services and goods will be taxed at 28% have been found to be incorrect
• Tax brackets will be widened over a period of time and there will be only two tax segments: common man and businessman
• All issues will be ironed out before the roll out of GST from April 1, 2017

This was followed by session from Dr Jacob Crasta. The salient features from his talk were:

• Professional Tax and Income Tax will continue post implementation of GST
• Government is aiming that indirect taxes should be lower than direct taxes
• For a clean environment, it is essential that all tax payers pay their dues diligently and there is no tax evasion
• Because of all processes being automated, the information technology ecosystem will ensure that there is complete transparency and no tax evasion throughout the value chain
• Corruption will also be reduced as the tax officer will not deal directly with businessman

Dinesh said that the biggest flaw in the current system is that very few people come under the tax brackets. As a result of which the honest tax payers end up bearing the cost for the dishonest citizens. GST is set to overcome this flaw by widening of the tax bracket and will support the overall ecosystem.