Unveiling of draft GST rules paves way for 1 July rollout

With the goal to implement good and services tax in India from 1 July, the government has released 14 sets of GST rules for public consultation. The GST Council will meet on 18 and 19 May to finalize the rules and fix GST rates. There is fervent activity aimed at setting rates for goods and services that will be acceptable to both the centre and the states.

The GST rules released pertain to: registration; invoice; returns; payment; refund; valuation; transition; e-way bills; accounts and records; input tax credit; composition; advance ruling; appeals and revision; and assessment and audit.

The major aspects of the first 11 sets of draft rules are outlined below.

Revised registration rules

These provide procedures for obtaining registration by a taxable person in various situations. The revised rules also contemplate registration for non-resident suppliers in specific situations.

Revised invoice rules

These provide the information that needs to be mentioned on invoices, time limit and manner for issuance of tax invoice, issue of bill of supply in the case of exempted supplies, supplementary tax invoice, credit/debit notes, and issue of invoice by input service distributor (ISD), goods transport agency, banking/insurance company and supplier of passenger transportation service. The new aspects to be captured have also been added in the revised rules.