As if soaring prices of essential commodities is not enough punishment to ordinary citizen, the Union Government has decided that with the exception of 38 services, that figure in the negative list, all other activities would attract 12 per cent tax. The Government had earlier decided to implement the negative list from July 1. Though services like coaching classes and training institutions will come under the net of services tax, yet in many other services like rail freight and fare, confusion prevails. In order to give teeth to the imposition of taxes the Government has widened the definition of “Services” which brings 119 services in all under positive and taxable list. This is to take the country and its economy a step closer towards the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Without commenting on the wisdom or otherwise of putting more tax burden on ordinary citizens, it is unavoidable to draw the attention of the authorities to two aspects of taxation in the context of its application to J&K. One is that foolproof mechanism of enforcing prevention of tax evasion is not in place and thus the state exchequer loses a big chunk of revenue. The second is that of efficient delivery of services that fall in the net of services tax. Government must ensure that one who pays more tax is also provided class service. We hope the Government will have taken that aspect into consideration at the time of promulgating new services tax policy.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel