The Goods and Services Tax, which would be rolled out from July 1, will give a boost to the ‘Make in India’ programme, besides benefiting exporters, Union Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said here on Friday.

 

“The GST will give a major boost to the ‘Make in India’ initiative by making goods and services produced or provided in India competitive in the national and international markets,” Mr. Adhia said at a GST outreach programme here.

 

“All imported goods will be charged with integrated tax (IGST), which will be more or less equivalent to the central GST and State GST combined together. This brings parity in taxation on local and imported products,” he said.

 

“In this country, trucks that move from one part to another spend 35% of their time at border check posts waiting for documents to be cleared and checked. Imagine a situation when there will be no border check posts after GST. The logistic sector will get benefits. And the efficiency in logistics would help the manufacturing process and also the ‘Make in India’ initiative,” said the bureaucrat.

 

Mr. Adhia said the export sector would also benefit under the new tax regime. “Under GST, exports will be zero rated entirely unlike the present system where refund of some taxes is not allowed due to the fragmented nature of indirect taxes between the Centre and the States. All taxes paid on goods or services exported or on inputs or input services used in the supply of such export goods or services will be refunded,” he clarified.

 

“The principle of exporting only costs of goods or services and not taxes would be followed. This will boost Indian exports, thereby improving balance of payments position.

 

Exports will be facilitated by grant of provisional refund of 90% of their claims within seven days of issue of acknowledgement of their applications,” the Revenue Secretary said.