On November 12 and 13, 2021 from 9.30 am IST 5 p.m. (NZT)
Venkat Raman
Auckland, November 10, 2021
Two legal and financial experts from New Zealand will participate in a global webinar on India’s Experience with Goods and Services Tax, which is expected to benefit businesses and individuals doing business with India.
New Zealand has a long, 35-years of successful history with GST, while India introduced the scheme only four years ago, and its multi-level and multi-state, complex tax system can be baffling.
About the Webinar
Stace Hammond Lawyers in New Zealand Managing Partner Patrick Wilson, and Senior Tax Counsel Dave Ananth have been invited to participate in the webinar being organised by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT), an autonomous body advising the State Government of Kerala on fiscal and social policies.
Mr Wilson and Mr Ananth will speak on ‘GST: 35 years of New Zealand experience and counting,’ followed by a Question and Answer Session.
This Seminar will feature special panels of Finance Ministers of States, experts from other countries that have implemented GST, experts from India apart and scholars and advisors presenting research papers.
GST System in India
GIFT Director Professor K J Joseph said that the forthcoming Seminar, with a Specialist Panel, will provide a ‘cross-country experience on GST’ and enable a better understanding of the mechanism and process.
“The GST system in India is still evolving and for many stakeholders, GST belied their expectations. The key stakeholders, such as state governments, the business community, the unorganised and informal sector, the consumers, and the economy have expressed discontent in GST implementation. Currently, our focus is to understand the issues involved and help make the necessary changes. In this context we felt much could be learned from the experience of other countries,” he said.
The federal government of India implemented its version of GST on July 17, 2017, aiming to unify and ‘simplify’ the tax structure and have in place a better collection regime. The tax structure has been divided into five different tax slabs at 0%, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had opposed GST during his tenure as the Chief Minister of the Western State of Gujarat launched it at a special session of Parliament on July 17, 2017, describing it as ‘an example of Cooperative Federalism.’
Giving it a new acronym as ‘Good and Simple Tax,’ he said that GST will ensure the concept of ‘One Nation, One Tax’ and that ‘GST will lead to immense savings of time and cost.’
India has a complex tax system that is still evolving, with different states having different views on GST.
About GST in New Zealand
The Goods and Services Tax GST was introduced by the Fourth Labour government on October 1, 1986 at a rate of 10% on most goods and services. It replaced then existing sales taxes on some goods and services. GST was a part of the economic reforms initiated by Labour Finance Minister Roger Douglas called ‘Rogernomics.’ He later founded the ACT Party with many other former fellow Labour MPs and like-minded people.
GST was introduced in conjunction with compensating changes to personal income tax rates and removal of many excise taxes on imported goods.
Since its introduction, there were two increases: on July 1, 1989 (from 10% to 12.5%) and on October 1, 2010 (from 12.5% to 15%).
How the GST Scheme works: GST-registered organisations and individuals pay GST only on the difference between GST-liable sales and GST-liable supplies (i.e., they pay GST on the difference between what they sell and what they buy: income less expenditure). This is accomplished by reconciling GST received (through sales) and GST paid (through purchases) at regular periods (typically every two months, with some qualifying companies opting for one-month or six-month periods), then either paying the difference to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) if the GST collected on sales is higher or receiving a refund from IRD if the GST paid on purchases is higher.
About Patrick Wilson
Stace Hammond Managing Partner Patrick Wilson has wide experience in the corporate, commercial and finance sectors in New Zealand and overseas including the USA, specialising in structured finance, securitisation and factoring, mezzanine finance options, managed funds and various tax-effective mixed-income/capital instruments.
About Dev Ananth
Senior Tax Counsel Dev Ananth has vast experience with GST systems in both Malaysia and New Zealand. He sought to advocate the New Zealand GST structure during his term as Director at Ernst & Young, Malaysia advising the Malaysian government on their new taxation system. Now anchored with Stace Hammond Lawyers in Auckland, Mr Ananth practices in a highly specialised field of taxation encompassing negotiations with IRD, tax structures, international tax obligations and double tax agreements.
Together, both will be representing New Zealand at this international event with robust international discourse on GST, hosted online.
