The Hon’ble Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley announced a host of changes in the Indirect tax structure in the Union Budget 2016-17 on February 29, 2016, that are expected to impact the Trade and Industry. Under Service tax, on one hand, the effective rate of Service tax would go up to 15% w.e.f June 1, 2016 with the introduction of Krishi Kalyan Cess at 0.5% on the value of all taxable services, on another hand, some of the exemptions, which were hurriedly withdrawn during the last two years, have been reinstated with complete clarity & refund mechanism. Further, there are many changes in the Negative list, Exemption list, Reverse Charge and Abatement Notification also.

As an endeavour to summarise all the important changes in the arena of Service tax for easy digest, Mr. Bimal Jain has recorded a video titled “Union Budget 2016: Changes in Indirect Tax - Service Tax & Excise”, discussing the flurry of changes proposed by the Union Budget 2016-17 and their likely impact. Please find below the link for the video.