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Exempt seafood from the GST: SEAI

Exempt seafood from the GST: SEAI

GST, GST bill, Seafood tax, Seafood India, SEAI,By Priya Yadav,

Visakhapatnam, (IANS) : Seafood should be treated as agricultural produce and exempted from the GST, proposed to come in force from April 1, 2017, said an advisor to a marine products exporters association.

Raghavan Ramabadran, a Chennai-based partner in law firm Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan, which is an advisor to Seafood Exporters Association of India, said the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has been demanding the “exemption of seafood products from the GST” before the bill is implemented.

“The authority has been doing a detailed analysis of the impact of GST on the marine industry,” he said on the sidelines of the three-day-long 20th edition of the India International Seafood Show, jointly organised by the MPEDA and the SEAI, which began here Friday.

Intended to provide a valuable forum for exchange of experiences and exposure to new technologies which will intimately help in boosting exports of the country’s marine products, the IISS is also aimed at boosting India’s aquaculture industry with the US, EU, Southeast Asia, Japan and China as major partners.

This year’s seafood show has been organised with the theme of “Safe and Sustainable Indian Aquaculture” to project the quality of aquaculture.

On other issues facing the Indian industry, SEAI Secretary General Elias Sait said: “Under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, approved in late 1994, the anti-dumping and countervailing duty may get removed after the sunset review from February 2016-2017.”

Under the anti-dumping duty, the US industries may petition India for relief from imports sold there at less than fair value (“dumped”), Elias said.

Meanwhile, Ramabadran, citing MPEDA statistics, said: “India exports less than one per cent ready to be tabled marine products. They are further processed and labelled under a foreign brand. This makes India a consumer country and not a manufacturer.”

The exported products contain preservatives to increase the shelf life but are not completely processed, and are being transported in raw form only, he said.

India, being the world’s seventh largest seafood producer, needs to increase value added operations in the marine industry and promote sustained small scale aquaculture through empowerment of farmers, said Ramabadran.

“The processing operations should be encouraged in the country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. It will not only create employment but also boost the growth of the seafood industry,” he added.

(Priya Yadav can be contacted at priya.y@ians.in)

Salient features of draft GST Bill

Salient features of draft GST Bill

gstFollowing are the salient points of the draft GST bill

* GST rate not specified in the constitutional amendment bill, as desired by the Congress. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said there was complete consensus at the empowered committee meeting that there should be no constitutional cap on the GST rate.

* All forms of “supply” of goods and services such as sale, transfer, barter, exchange, license, rental, lease and import of services of goods and services made for a consideration will attract CGST (central levy) and SGST (state levy).

* As GST will apply on “supply”, the erstwhile taxable heads such as “manufacture”, “sale” and “provision of services”, among others, will lose relevance.

* The liability to pay CGST or SGST will arise at the time of supply.

* With GST to be applicable according to whether a transaction is “intra-state” or “inter-state”, separate provisions are there to help an assessee determine the place of supply for goods and services.

* States will draft their own State GST based on the draft model law with minor variations.

* GST would be payable on “transaction value”, being the price actually paid or payable, and said to include all expenses in relation to sale, such as packing and commission.

* As the threshold limit, the draft GST Bill proposes Rs 10 lakh, and for Northeast states and Sikkim, an amount of Rs 5 lakh.

Numbers change in Rajya Sabha will permit GST passage: Jaitley

Numbers change in Rajya Sabha will permit GST passage: Jaitley

gstNew Delhi : (IANS) The government hopes that the biennial elections in the Rajya Sabha will give it enough seats in the upper house of parliament to pass the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday.

“Numbers are going to significantly change in the Rajya Sabha with the biennial elections. Every political party in parliament, barring one, has told me it will support GST,” Jaitley said, fielding questions at the annual India Today Conclave here.

The GST Bill has been approved by the Lok Sabha and is currently stalled in the upper house, where the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) lacks a majority.

Referring to the Congress party, that is opposing the bill in its current form, Jaitley said the party has an “issue on constitutional capping” of GST tariffs.

“Our tariffs are not decided by constitutional caps,” the finance minister said, adding that such a move would limit the scope of making future changes.

“Today state governments tell me they are all in favour of GST. Even Karnataka, which has a Congress government, wants the GST,” he added.