HISTORIC GST BILL PASSED...ONE MARKET ONE NATION!!!

Four key GST bills passed in Lok Sabha, July 1 rollout set

Food items are currently not taxed, and these will remain zero rated under GST.

India inched closer on Wednesday to a unified tax regime with the Lok Sabha passing four supplementary measures that will enable the government to roll out the landmark Goods and Services Tax from July 1.

With the passage of these four enabling bills, the Centre hopes to meet the target implementing GST in around three months’ time.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first to welcome the passage of the bills. “Congratulations to all countrymen over passage of the GST bills. New Year, New Law, New Bharat,” he tweeted.

The four bills which were passed are the Central Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017, the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017, the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Bill 2017 and the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017. A host of amendments moved by the Opposition parties were rejected.

In his reply to a marathon seven-hour debate before the bills were passed in the Lower House, finance minister Arun Jaitley said the GST was likely to make a number of commodities “slightly cheaper”. He said that by doing away with the concept of tax on tax, the GST would also help curb inflation.

The GST rates will depend upon whether the commodity was used by rich people or ordinary citizens, Mr Jaitley said, adding that once the new regime was implemented, the harassment of businesses by different authorities would soon end.

The finance minister said the GST Council, comprising the finance ministers of different states and Union territories, had agreed to take a decision on bringing real estate within the ambit of the new tax regime within a year of its rollout.

Explaining why the GST Council had set multiple tax rates, he said that a “hawai chappal” and a BMW cannot be taxed at the same rate.

Food items are currently not taxed, and these will remain zero rated under GST. All other commodities would be fitted into the nearest tax bracket, he added.

The GST Council has recommended a four-tier tax rate structure — of five, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. On top of the highest slab, a cess will be imposed on certain luxury and demerit goods to compensate states for revenue loss in the first five years of GST’s implementation.

The Central GST (CGST) law has pegged the peak rate at 20 per cent, and a similar rate has been prescribed in the State GST (SGST) law, which takes the peak rate to 40 per cent, which will also come into force only in financial exigencies.

The finance minister said the GST Council was working on the basis of consensus and slowly all items will come within the ambit of the new indirect tax regime.

Touted as the biggest tax reform since Independence, the GST will subsume Central excise, service tax, VAT and other local levies to create an uniform market. GST is expected to boost GDP growth by about two per cent and check tax evasion.

“The hard work put in by the GST Council members and officers bore fruit today in terms of four classic pieces of legislation passed by the Lok Sabha,” revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia tweeted later. Mr Adhia went on to add that the passage of the four laws was a “historic milestone in the economic history of this country”.

“The July deadline is possible. We have promised businesses that there will be clarity on the law at least three months before its implementation. That has come from the passing of the four bills,” revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia said.

He announced that the GST council will pass all nine sets of rules by March 31.

The CGST will give powers to the Centre to levy tax after excise and service taxes and additional customs duty are subsumed. The IGST will be a tax on inter-state movement of goods and services.

The UTGST is for Union territories such as Chandigarh and Daman and Diu.

WHAT NEXT- State GST will have to be cleared by each state assembly to turn India into one unified market.

GST Council will meet in April to decide the rates for some 4000-5000 commoditized and services.

NEW REGIME-

GST replaces many tariff with on national tax in four slabs ranging from 5 to 28 percent.

From Sources:-

FINAL BELL OF GST!!!

CESA'S FELICITATION FUNCTION...

CESA, Mumbai cordially invites all the 86 newly promoted Assistant Commissioners of Mumbai Zone for felicitation function at NACEN, Bhandup on 25^th March, 2017 (Saturday) at 11:00 AM followed with welcome by IRS Indirect Taxes Officers Association of Mumbai Zone to their fraternity. 

Kindly be present in time. 

Marching Towards GST !!!

Cabinet clears four bills to enable rollout of GST

The Union Cabinet on Monday approved four supporting Goods and Services Tax-related laws which will enable them to be introduced in the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament so the new tax can be rolled out from July 1.

The four laws approved by the Cabinet are the Central GST, Integrated GST, Union Territory GST and the Compensation Bills. Now state cabinets have to approve the State GST Bills which must then be passed by the respective state Assemblies to bring the new one-nation-one-tax regime into force by merging Central taxes like excise duty and service tax, and state levies like VAT.

The GST laws were the only agenda at the meeting of the Union Cabinet on Monday.

The GST Council has already approved the four-tier tax slabs of five, 12, 18 and 28 per cent, plus an additional cess on demerit goods like luxury cars, aerated drinks and tobacco products. In April, the council will decide which commodity and service will be taxed at what rate.

Among the pending agenda for the GST Council is the approval of four rules — on composition, valuation, input tax credit and transitions. For this, the next meeting of the GST will be held on March 31.

The Central GST Bill has provisions for the levy and collection of tax on intra-state supply of goods or services or both by the Centre. The IGST Bill has provisions for the levy and collection of tax on inter-state supply of goods or services or both by the Central government.

The UTGST Bill provides for levy on collection of tax on intra-UT supply of goods and services in Union territories without a legislature. The Union Territory GST is a kin to States Goods and Services Tax (SGST), which will be levied and collected by the states/Union territories on intra-state supply of goods or services, or both.

The Compensation Bill provides for compensation to states for loss of revenue due to implementation of the Goods and Services Tax for five years as per Section 18 of the Constitution (101st Amendment) Act 2016.

From Sources:-

Humpty Dumpty of Promotion Order!!!!

This following OA by M S Dhindsa pleads inter alia that pending  this OA, the impugned promotion of private Respondents (10 in Nos) be stayed as Respondents (DoR) has failed to provide the benefit of Catch up rule to the applicant. The request has been allowed by stay but not clear for all or limited.

Catch up rule is not being followed in Govt. service perhaps because SLP 30621/ 2011 still pending in SC, and SC interim order dated 29.09.16 as followed in DOPT OM dated 30.09.16 and CAT PB order 3.06.16 has been applied for DPC. 

The CBEC and 10 private Respondents have to reply the notice.

The promotion has been challenged in respect of those who were made respondents in this case on the ground that they were junior to them in the feeder to feeder grade I.e. Inspector. 

Chandigarh CAT , in the matter OA 60/254/2017 on 09.03.2017, ordered stay on Promotion order dated 23.02.2017 of Assistant Commissioner till next hearing.

DELAY IN POSTING..

       In Mumbai Customs Zone-I, Zone-II & Zone-III& in Service Tax-VII Commissionerate of Mumbai Service Tax Zone, the recently officers promoted on 23.02.2017, have been given postings, as a stop-gap arrangement under the discretion of the respective Principal Commissioner/Commissioner. It is expected, that administrative discipline be prevailed for the sake of uniformity, all the other zones may also follow the same arrangement, if issuance of order by Board is indefinetly delayed. First we have requested to hold DPC and issuance of promotion order, now we should represent for posting order. Utilisation of staff/posts and HR needs a new design according to the time of demand. However, the representation of CESA, Mumbai to the Board is annexed: 

Ref : CESA/11/2017

Date : 17.03.2017

The Hon’ble Chairman,

Ministry of Finance

CBEC, North Block

New Delhi.

The Hon’ble Member (P & V)

Ministry of Finance

CBEC, North Block,

New Delhi.

Sub: - Deployment of newly promoted Assistant Commissioners –reg.

Respected Sir/Madam,

At the outset, CESA Mumbai, expresses its sincere thanks to your good self for holding the much awaited DPC for the year 2014-15 and 2015-16 and issued promotion Orders on 23^rd Feb. 2017, vide Office Order No. 33/2017.

In the said order 792 Superintendents of Central Excise, 87 Superintendents of Customs and 25 Appraisers of Customs, were elevated as Assistant Commissioners. 

Sir, you are well aware of the acute pinch of stagnation in Central Excise. So far no proper remedial action has been adopted to clear the stagnation, except cosmetic surgery, disproportionate to the wound the cadre carries due to non-promotion.  The post of adhoc Assistant Commissioners of 2118 posts were cleared citing our stagnation, but while allocating the posts, the prevailing practice of allocation in the ratio i.e 13:2:1 was adopted and thus the Cadres where there is no stagnation have been benefitted & have moved further in their career whereas the Central Excise Cadre despite vacant posts, Superintendents have retired without promotion. To substantiate our aforesaid views this is enough to cite that posts were sanctioned for 5 years in 2013 but the first Order came out only in Oct-2014 and thereafter in Feb-2017, which speaks for itself about the concern shown, and very little about our resentment in the delay.

Sir, it is our apprehension that on the pretext of rolling out of GST, i.e. in July-2017, structure of our organizations will undergo immense changes as also in the staff strength.

The AGT of Group ‘A’ for the year 2017 is on the cards plus there is the 69^th batch of new Direct Recruitswho are likely to join in May-2017 or so after completion of their basic training, and it is learnt that due to that the decision of issuing Orders of postings of newly promoted A.C. is likely to be delayed. To keep the posts vacant will certainly undermine the post of Assistant Commissioner, as well as humiliation for the officers, as despite postsbeing available, they are not being posted.  How far this is true can be best known to your good self but apprehension is not out of place as we are always been at the receiving end. This Association therefore requests that orders be issued at the earliest without any discrimination.

The interest of officers to remain in Customs assuming in GST Central Excise and Service Tax will subsume and the fact that the jurisdiction of Customs will remain intact should be dealt in a fair manner, without any favour. When the officers of State VAT employees are openly propagating that the handling of Service Tax, Central Excise and Customs is not as difficult as rocket science and demanding that all areas of operation be in their fold, hence Board should be broad-minded as well as fair to the Central Excise cadre while allocating the formations.

In this background CESA requests as below:

1.       In the aforesaid Promotion Order number of officers of Central Excise, having less than 1 year of service for Superannuation, who have been promoted, out of which,  9 officers have reached the stage of superannuation in the same month in which they have been promoted, i.e in February 2017 alone.  The motivation and the enthusiasm of getting a promotion is far from encouraging.  Further as compared to the Annexure I, II and III, officers of Central Excise are having remaining period of service of 1 to 6 years, whereas officers of Customs have remaining period of service of 1 to 13 years and in Appraiser category, they have 1 to 17 years.  

2.       The posts which are presently filled are having a life of 5 years ending in Dec. 2018.  The period of service will not be counted as mentioned in the said Order.  The regular posts which are lying vacant are not being filled in.  Also the posts, which are on adhoc basis, are not regularized as per the DOPT guidelines.

3.        In the said order, the 124 officers of Mumbai Zone are promoted from Central Excise (however in which 4 have already taken VRS and 1 officer named in the order has already been promoted and posted in Service Tax, Mumbai Zone) who are having remaining period of service as shown in the below table

	C. Ex.  MUMBAI Zone	On all India Basis
		Cust. (P)	Appraiser
below 6 months	10	0	0
6  to 12 months	13	0	0
1 to 2 years	31	0	0
		2	1
2 to 3 years	21	3	1
3 to 4years	24	1	0
4 to 5 years	14	2	0
5 to 6 years	7	4	0
6 to 7 years	4	11	2
7 to 10 years	0	29	10
above 10 years	0	35	11
TOTAL	124	87	25

(A)       The vacancy position of Mumbai Zone is as under: Central Excise Zone I:  56, Zone II – 36,   

          Service Tax – 34, Pune Zone -  85  , Total = 211

(B)       The vacancy position in Mumbai Customs Zone I – 42, Zone II,  31 and Zone III is 37, Totaling     to 110.

            A + B = 321

 Apart from vacancies in various Directorates like, DRI, DGCEI, etc.

  

 4.        In the present scenario, there are vacancies in all the formations i.e. Central Excise, Service Tax, Customs Mumbai Zone and Pune Zone.  CESA Mumbai requests your good self that the officers recently promoted, irrespective of the formations, may not be displaced from their stations.  The promotion is on adhoc basis and there is no monetary gain as far as the Superintendents of Central Excise and Customs (Preventive) are concerned, except inciting misery/pain to their wounds of late promotions.  The Government is well prepared to roll out GST from July-2017 and the shifting of officers from one station to another will not yield any result except creating disharmony in their family life.  When the posts are available in the station in which the officer is working, they may be accommodated in the same station and if necessary they may be shifted from Customs to Central Excise or Service Tax or vice versa. 

5.         It is learnt that similar situation is also prevailing in other major stations, like Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkatta, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur etc.  It will not be prudent on the part of the Administration to merely change the stations, by which officers at both the stations will be disturbed and their concentration will always be on the availability of leave, so that they can meet their family members where they have settled. 

6.         CESA Mumbai earnestly requests your good self, on behalf of the Mumbai Zone, that all the recently promoted Officers (who are at the fag end of their career) may not be shifted from their present stations. The said compassionate approach will definitely bring results in the ensuing GST regime as the Officer of Central Excise are work-oriented and meticulous, who know their job better than others as well as have the capacity to work in adverse conditions. 

            Thanking you in anticipation of your positive response in this regard.

Yours sincerely,

A.K. SASMAL

General Secretary

Copy to : Hon’ble DGHRD, CBEC, Rajendra Palace,  New Delhi for kind

                information and necessary action

ONE STEP AHEAD TOWARDS GST..

Council approves all five draft bills for GST

On 16th March, The 12th GST Council cleared draft bills - UTGST and SGST and all the draft bills will roll out of the new indirect tax regime by July 1.

With the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council on Thursday approving the remaining two draft bills -- UTGST (Union Territory GST) and SGST (state GST), all the five enabling draft bills stand approved to enable a likely rollout of the new indirect tax regime by July 1. "The 12th Council meeting approved UTGST and SGST today. Officers had already done the groundwork, The drafts were already circulated. In the past meetings, the Council has already approved CGST (Central GST), IGST (Integrated GST) and Compensation drafts," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who chairs the Council, told here. With the final approvals, the legislative exercise stands complete and July 1 is the tentative date of GST's implementation, Jaitley said, reports IANS. The draft bills now need to be approved by the Cabinet and tabled in Parliament's ongoing budget session. Meanwhile, the GST draft law will have to be approved by the legislative assemblies of Delhi and Puducherry.

The UTGST draft law is for the union territories like Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which do not have legislative assemblies. The new indirect tax regime also has nine set of rules and regulations, out of which the Council has already approved five -- registration, payment, refunds, invoices and returns. Four other rules - composition, valuation, input tax credit transitions - require a formal approval of the Council," Jaitley said adding the next meeting will be held on March 31. After March 31, the Council will take up the exercise of fitment of various commodities in the GST tax slabs - 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 15 per cent and 28 per cent, he added.

The officials have already started the fitment process, which will be put up for discussion and approval before the Council. Jaitley also said that the cess on sin (tobacco products) and luxury goods has been capped at 15 per cent by the Council. "Capping of cess has been done. These are not actual, but, ceiling is kept higher to give a marginal headspace," he said.

From Sources:-

HAPPY HOLI !!!!

On this beautiful festival of vibrancy and colors, let’s reiterate our commitment to each other by sharing all the different shades of life. CESA, Mumbai wishes one and all a very Happy Holi, may splashes of laughter and sprinkles of joy add more colors to our life.

From CESA’s Desk.

It is requested that those who have been promoted as Asst Com in the Est. Order No. 33/2017 dated 23^rd February, 2017 to submit representations for retention in the same station or change of station or any relief through proper channel to the Member (P&V). Posting Order is likely to be issued in the last week of this month.

The local Mumbai administration had a meeting for an amicable solution to clear the stalemate / litigations, so that all the vacant posts of Supdts can be filled up, but due to rigidness by the stakeholders, the attempt failed. DPC from Inspector to Superintendent was held on 10^th March, 2017 and orders were issued wherein five officers having sealed cover and 133 officers' were promoted. 88 officers are from Mumbai out of 138 officers. The posting orders of the above officers are likely to be issued in the fourth week of this month. CESA, Mumbai congratulates all these officers for their promotion as well as wishes them the best for their new assignment.

The case pending in Mumbai CAT, filed by Shri Waghmare, will come up for hearing on 15^th March, 2017. Hope that the issue will be resolved, so that posts lying vacant (600) can be filled in by all the eligible officers.

Due to renovation at RTI, NACEAN Bhandup, the Date has been changed - now the felicitation of newly promoted officers as AC of Mumbai zone will be held on 25^th March(Saturday).

*********************