The service tax commissionerate on Tuesday organised a seminar on budgetary changes to address issues and concerns of trade on proposed changes in service tax. The event was attended by Sheila Sangwan, members Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), KM Kennedy, director, Tax Research Unit (TRU), and Ravindra Saroop, additional commissioner and OSD, TRU among others.
Kennedy talked about the complexity of laws governing service tax and how the new approach was aimed at simplifying it. At heart of this new approach is a clear definition of what constitutes a service, he said while making a presentation. Talking about the four new ideas that was the guiding principle, he said that this included the negative list, the declared services, the place rules and taxable territories.
Talking further about the negative list, Kennedy said it was a step towards effective implementation of GST. The idea is to widen the tax base with few exemptions and exclusions, he said.
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