The Goods and Services Tax is one of the most complex taxes in the world with the second highest tax rate, the World Bank has said.

The GST was implemented by the Union Government on July 1 last year. GST has the second highest tax rate in the world, the World Bank has concluded after studying 115 countries that have similar indirect tax regimes.

The Goods and Services Tax was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government with five tax slabs that are 0 per cent, 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent, and 28 per cent.

Currently, around 49 countries have a single slab tax structure, while 28 countries use two slabs and there are only five countries, including India, which use five or more slabs. The other countries are Italy, Luxembourg, Pakistan and Ghana.

The World Bank’s biannual publication, ‘India Development Update: India’s Growth Story’ expects the economy to clock a growth rate of 6.7 per cent in the current fiscal.

“High compliance costs are also arising because the prevalence of multiple tax rates implies a need to classify inputs and outputs based on the applicable tax rate. Along with the need to apply the correct rate, firms are required to match invoices between their outputs and inputs to be eligible for full input tax credit, which increases compliance costs further,” it added.

The World Bank report further says accelerating the growth rate would also require continued integration into the global economy.

“Key to success is a policy design that minimizes compliance burden, for example by minimizing the number of different rates and limiting exemptions, with simple laws and procedures, an appropriately structured and resourced administration, compliance strategies based on a balanced mix of education and assistance programs and risk-based audit programs,” it said.

“The Indian economy is likely to recover from the impact of demonetisation and the GST, and growth should revert slowly to a level consistent with its proximate factors — that is, to about 7.5 per cent a year,” the report said.

(Agencies)

Mumbai: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s tally may drop by 100-110 seats in the next Lok Sabha polls in 2019, if the current trends and the results of the recent bypolls are an indicator, its ally Shiv Sena said in a gloomy prediction here on Friday.

“The twin wins by the Samajwadi Party in BJP bastions like Gorakhpur and Phulpur has created panic in the BJP camp even as they were busy celebrating the party’s victory in a small state like Tripura last week,” the Sena said in a tough edit in the party mouthpieces, ‘Saamana’ (Marathi) and ‘Dopahar Ka Saamana’ (Hindi).

Though the BJP claims that by-elections do not reflect the mood of the country, ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over, the party has lost nearly nine seats in Lok Sabha by-polls, slashing its tally from 282 to around 272 – the half-way mark in the 543-strong Lower House, the editorial said.

“It was barely a year ago that the BJP won the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, creating a record by winning 325 seats. The saffron-clad Yogi Adityanath, who has never lost the Gorakhpur seat since 1991, became the state Chief Minister. So despite the huge popularity they enjoyed, why was their citadel shattered,” the Sena wondered.

It could be said that in 2014, there was a huge “wave” of popularity and water had blocked the eyes and ears of the masses, leading to (BJP’s) victory, but, now the wave has receded and people can “see” everything clearly, the edit said.

The BJP is now blaming “poor voter turnout”, “lack of enthusiasm” or “a deal between the Samajwadi Party with Bahujan Samaj Party” for its rout in the two critical seats in Uttar Pradesh.

“Since 2014, how many deals has the BJP entered into for power… What about Naresh Agrawal, who was inducted in BJP with such fanfare? In Tripura, the BJP could win only after the entire Congress and Trinamool Congress ‘merged’ with it” the Sena pointed out.

Referring to the polls, the Sena said the SP candidates secured big margins in both Gorakhpur and Phulpur, indicating that the people went out of the way to defeat the BJP in both seats which were won with huge margins of two-three lakh votes in 2014.

On the winning spree of the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar’s Jehanabad and Araria, the Sena said some BJP leaders were living in a fool’s paradise as they attributed it to “a sympathy wave” for the jailed RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav.

“Lalu is in jail for corruption… and that could be a politics of vendetta. Despite that if he can get ‘sympathy’, then it’s a big blow to both Nitish Kumar and Modi… The outcome has thrown down the BJP from the sky to the ground,” the Sena said.

“Amidst all this, it is clear now, that in 2019, the BJP’s numbers will not be 280, but it will plummet by at least 100-110 seats. The elections are not being fought in Russia, America, Canada, France or Israel, but in India. So they (BJP) should keep their feet on the ground here,” the Sena warned.

(IANS)

Gorakhpur/Patna: In a major blow to the BJP, the Samajwadi Party, backed by its otherwise bitter foe BSP, wrested the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh and was set to win in Gorakhpur, seats vacated by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Samajwadi Party candidate Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel defeated his nearest Bharatiya Janata Party rival Kaushlendra Singh Patel by 59,613 votes, leading to noisy celebrations and calls for opposition unity across the nation to defeat the BJP in next year’s Lok Sabha battle.

The results were announced after 31 rounds of counting.

The Bahujan Samaj Party had extended support to the Samajwadi Party in a bid to avoid a split in opposition vote.

Amid beating of drums and distribution of sweets, the victorious Nagendra Patel not only thanked the people of Phulpur for his victory but said he also had the blessings of ‘behenji’ Mayawati along with his own leader Akhilesh Yadav.

Mafia don-turned-politician Ateeq Ahmad, contesting as an Independent from inside the jail, won 33,818 votes in Phulpur while Manish Mishra (Congress) got 11,934 votes.

SP’s Praveen Kumar Nishad is leading in the Gorakhpur constituency with 377,146 votes after 25 rounds of counting. BJP’s Upendra Dutt Shukla is second with 354,192 votes.

Yogi Adityanath and Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats respectively after being elected to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Both seats were a status fight for the BJP.

As the vote count moved towards the final rounds, Samajwadi Party’s Praveen Nishad had secured 334,463 votes in Gorakhpur, with the BJP’s Upendra Dutt Shukla at the second spot with 308,593 votes. One official said Nishad had won.

The setback comes as a huge shocker to the year-old BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, where Adityanath has represented Gorakhpur in the Lok Sabha seat for five consecutive times.

Both the Lok Sabha constituencies voted on Sunday.

“This is a rejection of both (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and Yogi (Adityanath),” Samajwadi Party spokesman Anurag Bhaudauria told IANS.

“They have been making tall promises but not delivering on the ground,” he said, explaining why the voters appeared to have turned away against the BJP so dramatically in these two seats since the 2014 Lok Sabha battle.

In a rare show of camaraderie, Samajwadi Party leaders admitted that the BSP decision to back their party played a critical role in the outcome.

In 2014, the BJP stunningly won 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats while one of its allies secured two. The Samajwadi Party won from five seats. The Congress won two seats and the BSP drew a blank.

The Samajwadi Party took early lead right from the beginning of the vote count that began on Wednesday morning and steadily built up the gap with its BJP rivals as officials counted the tens of thousands of votes.

Gorakhpur District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela earlier sparked a storm by barring journalists from entering the counting centre and did not announce details of counting after the first two rounds.

After the defeat of BJP, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP leader Yogi Adityanath said, “We accept the verdict of the people, this result is unexpected, we will review the shortcomings. I congratulate the winning candidates.”

Gorakhpur has been held by Yogi Adityanath since 1998 – he was the youngest MP at 26 – and three times before that by his mentor Advaidyanath.

Phulpur is an extremely prominent Lok Sabha seat that the BJP had wrested only in 2014. It has been represented by Jawaharlal Nehru, his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit and also former Prime Minister V P Singh.

The fate of the third parliamentary seat being called today is Araria in Bihar, where too the BJP is trailing, this time behind Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD.

RJD won the Araria Lok Sabha bypoll by 61,988 votes.

RJD got 5,09,334 votes and BJP got 4,47,346 votes in Bihar.

Counting for two Assembly seats in Bihar were also held today. BJP’s Rinky Rani Pandey has won Bhabhua Assembly seat while the RJD has won the Jehanabad Assembly seat.

Since there are no permanent enemies in politics, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have come together this time to stop the BJP.

The last time they joined hands was in 1992 — to take charge of the state after the sacking of BJP’s Kalyan Singh in the aftermath of the Babri demolition.

The elections were said to test the recently formed electoral arrangement between the two arch-rivals — Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP). The two parties have come together in Phulpur and Gorakhpur for the first time after 1991 to take on the BJP.

(Agencies)

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday congratulated Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati and RJD leader Lalu Prasad as the opposition took big leads over the BJP in Lok Sabha by-elections.

“Great victory. Congratulations to Mayawatiji and Akhileshji… The beginning of the end has started,” the Trinamool Congress leader tweeted.

“Congratulations to Lalu Prasadji for winning Araria and Jehanabad. This is a great victory,” she said. Officials in Patna said the vote count was still on.

The Samajwadi Party, backed by the BSP, took winning leads in both the Lok Sabha seats of Phulpur and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. The RJD was leading over the BJP in the Lok Sabha seat of Araria in Bihar.

(IANS)