VJIM holds seminar on GST

Hyderabad: The Vignana Jyothi Institute of Business Management (VJIM) organised a seminar on “Goods and Services Tax (GST) - The Game Changer” at its campus in Bachupally. The seminar was held to deliberate on the pros and cons of having a comprehensive tax levy on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and services at a national level.

The panel of speakers included representatives from the central tax department, the state’s tax department, tax consultants, academicians and chartered accountants. Dr Kamal Ghosh Ray, the Director of VJIM opened the discussion with a brief introduction on the benefits of GST and how it could be a game changer in the long run.

He also talked about some negative impacts such as cost push inflation brought about by higher tax rates as the expected GST rate would generally be higher than the given tax rate. Y Satyanarayana, Joint Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, Telangana, highlighted the importance of bringing service and manufacturing under the same taxation rules.

He gave the example of differential pricing of an item at an ordinary restaurant and a five star hotel and said it’s due to difference in services provided by the two. He added that it is difficult to include alcohol for human consumption, tobacco and petroleum products under GST as it would lead to freezing of taxes on the above products.

Gopi Donthireddy, Assistant Commissioner, Indian Revenue Service emphasized on both the good and the bad side of GST. He believed that states with high consumption stands to gain.