AP ranks 2nd in GST Regitration across India

Vijayawada, June 30: The Andhra Pradesh is ranked 2nd place in the country with 92 percent of the merchants, who registered under GST, which was announced by the Commercial Taxes Commissioner J.Shyamala Rao

At the hotel gateway in Vijayawada, Participating in an awareness program on 'GST - Implementation' organized by Andhra Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, a seminar was held to discuss the procedures for merchants to be adopted after the new taxation policy of the Goods and Service Tax(GST).

He said except alcohol, every commodity has been brought under the GST net.

The one tax, replacing multiple taxes and duties imposed at the State and Central level, will, in fact, replace around 200 different Acts exist in the indirect taxation system.

Further, it provides a common market and achieves balance and at the same time checks tax evasions, he said.

According to him, there are no separate registrations for goods and services under GST and the single registration is based on PAN number.

This will bring transparency and ensure accountability. In fact, it is a dual taxation method with 50% of tax going to the Centre and remaining 50 to the States.

There are three types of GST are CGST, SGST, IGST. The tax collected by the Central government is CGST and the tax collected by State government on goods and services within the State is SGST and the tax collected by Centre on goods and services between two different States is IGST.

He said though GST slabs have been fixed as 5%, 12%, and 18%, in certain cases, there will be a mess to the tune of 190 to 200 percent on coal, cigarettes, pan masala, soft drinks and luxury cars. At the same time, there are some exemptions from GST like food grains and 'prasad' of temples.

Not easy to amend GST rates It is not easy to amend the GST fixed as it would require three by the fourth majority in the GST council which has representatives of Central and State governments.