The much awaited and talked about GST regime in India is finally attaining certainty with a four-slab GST tax structure of 6, 12, 18 and 26 per cent being mooted at the GST Council meet after unveiling of the Model GST Law in June 2016 ('GST Law'). The government, which proposes to implement the new pan-India indirect tax regime from the start of the next fiscal in April 2017, has been moving ahead with finalising online processes for registration, refunds, returns filing and payments.
Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology (MAIT) appreciates the concerted efforts of the Government to bring all stakeholders on board to finalise India's new GST Law, which appears to be comprehensive in its approach. Stakeholders are optimistic that the GST tax structure being discussed will be in favour of the ICT industry.
"MAIT is very keen to see implementation of GST, which can potentially transform the Indian economy into a major global player. While the direct benefits would be on account of simplification of tax collection process, we foresee substantial increase in revenue collections that would enable government to enhance infrastructure spending. The spending on e-Governance would also fuel demand for IT products. After EVMs and UID, GST would be the third most important all time public digital transformation initiative for India," said Mr. Nitin Kunkolienker, Vice President, MAITand Director-Corporate Affairs, Smartlink Network Systems.
"We welcome the Government of India's move to introduce GST, which will give a significant boost to the economy. Along with improving ease of doing business and encouraging industries to expand their operations, GST will also ensure growth in job opportunities. Keeping consumer delight as a fundamental output of our technological evolution, at Canon, we are always keen to support endeavours that support progress and development in the country, โsaid Mr Kazutada Kobayashi, President and CEO, Canon India.
"As a leading global technology company operating across multiple business groups in India, Lenovo welcomes progressive tax reforms that ease business complexities and benefit organizations and consumers alike. Along with the rest of the industry we will keenly follow this development as GST gets formalized to help address various challenges in the current indirect tax landscape," stated a Lenovo India spokesperson.
"The IT-Electronics industry at large welcomes the proposed move to the GST regime, which would pave the way for a simplified and homogenous tax structure for goods and services across India," Mr. Kunkolienker further added.
'Make in India' and GST
The Government's supportive initiatives over the last two years such as introduction of preferential tariffs for locally manufactured mobile phones, Tablets and Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) have had a notable positive impact on the production of mobile phones that is estimated to have touched nearly 100 million units in CY 2015.
"The benefits afforded under the Government's flagship programme 'Make in India' should continue to enjoy patronage under the GST regime as well, given that businesses have made substantial investments, and also given that fruition of such schemes is realised over a period of time. Particularly, there is need for the continuation of Duty Differential Scheme offered on Mobile phones, Tablets, CPE and IP Surveillance Equipment under the GST regime as well. MAIT also demands that the same should be extended to more crucial CPE products, which were not covered during the last budget. MAIT strongly advocates extending the same scheme to Notebook PCs, Desktop PCs and Servers, a long standing demand of the industry. As the process of attracting investments into the IT-Electronics manufacturing sector has commenced recently, the 'Make in India' scheme could serve as one of the most attractive incentives for OEMs to expand operations in India," Mr. Kunkolienker concluded.
