State government vows to support GST regime

BANGALORE:  The state government has committed to support the introduction of Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime which was expected to reform the current complex taxation system of commodities and services, the Karnataka Assembly was informed here on Wednesday.According to the Medium term Fiscal plan document for the year 2012-2016 which was tabled in the House, the government would insist upon retaining the state’s autonomy to determine its tax level on domestic consumption.The state government maintained that  the GST regime would require a robust IT infrastructure to achieve its aim of widening the tax base and increasing revenue through better compliance along with removal of cascading effect of taxes leading to lower prices. The  state government has favoured the institute appropriate compensation mechanism to compensate any possible revenue loss under the new GST system.The document also highlighted that the state government was actively involved in the national level discussions. Also,  efforts  were  made to put in place a GST Network that would help in efficient tax administration.It may be recalled that the introduction of GST regime has been delayed as it requires a Constitution Amendment Bill to implement it. The state government  presented its views on the Constitution Amendment Bill to the Standing Committee and to the Empowered Committee of state Finance ministers.However, the Karnataka government has conveyed its serious reservations about certain features of the Bill.