The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called upon Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to implement the Goods and Services (GST) Tax from April 2013.

In a statement issued here, chamber senior president S. Rethinavelu said that with differences between the Centre and State Governments having narrowed down at the recent meeting of Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, GST should be enforced expeditiously.

Under the present tax regime, he said that the combined tax incidences of Excise Duty, Service Tax, Central Sales Tax and Value Added Tax on a product worked out to 30 per cent. Further, traders were unable to set off the excise duty and service tax on certain services and Central Sales Tax, which adds to the tax incidence of a product.

With GST promising to subsume all such indirect taxes, he said that tax incidences would not exceed 18 per cent under the new tax regime. Further, the tax set off facility would become available across the country, which would reduce tax burden and commodity prices.

With the introduction of negative list in service tax as a precursor to GST, all activities barring those in the negative list were now considered as services and subject to service tax. Hence, any further delay in enforcing GST would increase tax burden and contribute to an increase in prices of commodities, said Mr. Rethinavelu.