July 15-24 Current Affairs

National affairs
Three year plan structure for GST Regime
Goods and services tax (GST), which is to replace existing VAT, service tax, excise duties and central sales tax among others, will be placed from April 1, 2011. Pranab Mukerjee has unveiled a three-rate structure for GST which would finally converge into a single-rate regime of 16% on all goods and services.
 Under the GST regime, there will ultimately be a flat tax rate of 16% — 8% for central GST and 8% for state GST and the proposed three tier structure for the new indirect tax regime-  20 per cent for goods, 16 per cent for services and 12 per cent for essential items. As per the formula, the Centre and the states will equally share t he revenue.