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Finance secretary says onus of passing on the benefits is on companies Companies, including FMCG firms, might be prosecuted if their retailers do not immediately cut the prices of products whose goods and services tax (GST) rates have been slashed. Union Finance Secretary  Hasmukh Adhia  says the retailers or the companies cannot continue with higher prices on grounds that the old stocks have not been exhausted. “We have made provisions for the companies to claim the difference from the government as input tax credit. But I am not willing to accept their argument to postpone passing on the benefits to consumers till they have disposed of their old stocks.” According to him, the new prices should be effective from November 15. The GST Council in its last meeting this month cut the tax rate on 176 items from 28 per cent to 18 per cent and on two to 12 per cent. There was a huge demand to make these cuts. Speaking in a Doordarshan interview in which ...

Victory in Assam could help passage of GST, hope of seats in 2019 from all across India After a disastrous 2015, where it was electorally mauled first in Delhi and then Bihar, the year 2016 has brought much cheer for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The results are beyond   BJP ’s expectations -– it has comprehensively won Assam byand nearing the majority mark on its own, it has won its first ever seat and over 11 per cent votes in Kerala, as many as half dozen seats and 10 per cent vote share in Bengal and to top it, has the comfort of the return of a favourable government in Tamil Nadu. The results will sweeten Modi government’s second anniversary celebrations, brighten hopes for the passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Constitution amendment in the Monsoon session and boost BJP’s preparations for the important Uttar Pradesh assembly polls due by February 2017. Most of all, the results are good news for the BJP in the context of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. T...