Industry bodies should look at the finer points of the proposed Direct Taxes Code and the Goods and Services Tax to ensure efficient implementation of the new tax regime, suggested Parthasarathi Shome, Adviser to the Union Finance Minister.

Addressing an all-India workshop on indirect taxes, he said both these have been in the making since 2007 and have gone to various stages of refinement.

To ensure that the structural reforms in taxation go through smoothly, industry representatives should ensure that the rules being framed by States are in consonance with each other, he said at the event organised by the Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Under the proposed GST, the overall structure of the State and Union Government taxes are in place. The industry now has to check if “we are universalising out tax” to ensure the rules are an improvement over the current structure. Uniformity of State level GST and inter-State GST has to be ensured for smooth transactions across State borders.

Industry needs to move away from profit-oriented incentives to investment-oriented incentives. K. Vaitheeswaran, Advocate and Tax Consultant, said the Government should consider doing away with tax on services that bring in foreign exchange. This measure could be in place for just one year to shore up foreign exchange earnings and reduce the current account deficit.