GST law to make online shopping a taxing affair

New Delhi: All purchases made online will attract a uniform Goods and Services Tax, likely to take effect from April next year, according to the model GST law approved by state finance ministers yesterday. The model GST law, which has 162 clauses and 4 schedules, has also suggested jail terms of up to 5 years and fine for violation of the provisions of the statute.

The GST, in lieu of local levies, will be imposed at the first point of financial transaction. Rep pic/thinkstock

The tax, in lieu of local levies, will be imposed at the first point of financial transaction. This clears the air on applicability of GST in e-commerce in cases where goods were being sold in one state but being bought in another state. It prescribes a threshold of R9 lakh annual turnover for applicability of the new levy and R4 lakh for businesses in North Eastern states, including Sikkim.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers at their meeting yesterday in Kolkata approved the model GST law. "We request all stakeholders to give their suggestions/ comments to secretariat of Empowered Committee of FMs and or to finance ministry," Adhia tweeted.

All, except TN, support GST: Jaitley
KOLKATA: Virtually all states have supported the idea of GST except Tamil Nadu which has ‘some reservations', Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said yesterday after a meeting of Empowered Committee of state FMs on the long awaited indirect tax reform. He said, however, that there was ‘no deadline as such' for the implementation of the GST that aims to subsume a string of state and central level levies.