Telecom Industry welcomes the passing of the GST bill

GST reform is a discussion that gripped the national economic discourse several times during the last 10 years.

COAI has welcomed the passing of the GST Bill as this is a significant step towards simplified goods and service taxation, ease in compliance, achieving transparency and improving ease of doing business with the passage of the Constitutional Amendment Bill on GST by the Upper House.

Supporting the bill, Rajan S Mathews, Director General, COAI said, “the passing of the GST Bill is a major turning point in India’s history driven by the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley, to support the growth of businesses in the country. The industry welcomes and celebrates this iconic reform, while urging the government to ensure that the rate applied for the telecom services should be no more than the existing 15% to meet the government’s vision of a connected digital India and ensuring affordable services.

He further added, “this paradigm shift in India’s indirect tax regime must play an enabling role in the growth of key sectors like telecommunications. There are certain aspects relevant for the telecom sector that would need to be considered by the policy makers while finalising the GST legislation. We look forward to our continued engagement with the committee and working with them to make the implementation seamless, transformation meaningful and optimal”.

COAI has been actively engaging with various policy makers on all aspects that have a material impact on the telecom industry. These relate to a single pan-India registration for the telecom operators, lower and uniform rate of tax for telecom services, determination of tax liability under GST, determination of transaction value for tax, self-supply of services based on State-wise registrations and various components related to admissibility of input tax credits. The industry will continue to work with the government and provide regular inputs to the committee for a vibrant and healthy ecosystem.