Trade bodies demand simplification of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act and rules and stress on taking the matter as priority in the upcoming GST council meeting scheduled to be held on September 7. 

Agro Food Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has raised the demand for simplification, said, the Act in itself was riddled with complexities. It was difficult to be understood even by tax experts due to several notifications, clarifications and amendments in the past seven years.  

S. Rethinavelu, president of the body, suggested to start the simplification procedure in ensuring clarity in the rate of tax for different products.

“GST is levied based on HSN code (Harmonised System of Nomenclature), an internationally standardised system of names and numbers used to classify traded products introduced by World Customs Organisation (WCO). 

He said that HSN code has 21 Sections covering all products, and under which there were 99 Chapters with 1,244 headings and 5,224 subheadings, describing different products.  

Products falling under the headings and sub-headings are subjected to different tax rates under GST and that causes the confusion in rate of tax leading to litigations, he noted.  

Mr. Rethinavelu suggested that the solution for the same was levying tax based on sections in HSN code i.e., all products covered under the broad heading of one Section should have only one rate of tax.

Source: The Hindu