Keep agri-produce out of GST ambit: PHD Chamber

Arguing that expenses related to food constitute a sizeable portion of lower-income households, PHD Chamber today said that agriculture and agri-produce including food processing industry should be kept out of GST.
"Food is a large portion of spending of lower income households and any tax on food and farm produce would be regressive since production and distribution of food as well as agricultural produce is largely unorganised in India," the industry body said.
The chamber said that "since most food items have been either exempted from tax or taxed at a lower rate, it should be the attempt of the government to let the agriculture sector escape taxation in a just manner after the GST legislation is enacted".

It also urged the government to unveil draft rules and regulations relating to Goods and Services Tax (GST) on public domain to enable industry to share its comments on the legislation related to the proposed indirect tax regime.
Chairman, Indirect Tax Committee of PHD Chamber Bimal Jain said that even as the GST legislation has been awaiting the approval of the Upper House of Parliament, the industry is unaware of the contents of the draft rules and regulations of such an important legislation and thus either unable to react or submit its reactions and views to the government.
He demanded that until the Rajya Sabha endorses the constitutional amendment already passed by the Lok Sabha, the government should put the detailed draft in the public domain to elicit the views of all stakeholders including industry on GST so that a foolproof legislation is evolved to the best satisfaction of one and all.