Union Budget 2024: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday highlighted the positive impacts of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Presenting the Union Budget 2024-25 in Parliament, Sitharaman praised GST for decreasing the tax burden on the common man, reducing compliance obligations, and lowering logistics costs for trade and industry.
She hailed GST as a monumental success, noting several amendments designed to facilitate trade. Key among these is the exclusion of Extra Neutral Alcohol, used in liquor manufacturing, from central tax. Similar adjustments are proposed for the IGST and UTGST Acts. Additionally, a new Section 11A will empower the government to regularise non-levy or short levy of central tax due to widespread industry practices.
Significant changes include relaxing the time limit to avail input tax credit through new subsections to Section 16 of the CGST. The amended Act will also standardise the time limit for issuing demand notices and orders. Moreover, the period for taxpayers to benefit from reduced penalties by paying the demanded tax with interest has been extended from 30 to 60 days.
Further measures to aid trade include reducing the maximum pre-deposit for filing appeals with the Appellate Authority from Rs 25 crore to Rs 20 crore of central tax. For the Appellate Tribunal, the pre-deposit requirement is halved from 20 per cent with a maximum of Rs 50 crore to 10 per cent with a maximum of Rs 20 crore. The timeframe for filing appeals before the Appellate Tribunal has been adjusted effective August 1, 2024, to prevent appeals from becoming time-barred due to the Tribunal's operational status.
Additional amendments empower the government to notify the GST Appellate Tribunal to handle anti-profiteering cases, among other changes aimed at easing trade.
Sitharaman underscored GST's success and its simplified, rationalised tax structure, now expanded to remaining sectors to maximise benefits.