Finance Ministry slams rumours of churches and mosques being exempt from paying GST

On Monday, the Finance Ministry hit out at rumours that that churches and mosques were exempted from paying GST. The ministry's Twitter handle stated that all religious institutions including temple trusts, churches and mosques would have to pay GST.

The Twitter handle tweeted: "There are some messages going around in social media stating that temple trusts have to pay the GST while the churches & mosques are exempt. This is completely untrue because no distinction is made in the GST Law on any provision based on religion. We request to people at large not to start circulating such wrong messages on social media."

There are some messages going around in social media stating that temple trusts have to pay the GST while the churches & mosques are exempt.

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) July 3, 2017

This is completely untrue because no distinction is made in the GST Law on any provision based on religion.

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) July 3, 2017

We request to people at large not to start circulating such wrong messages on social media.

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) July 3, 2017

Three days into GST regime, Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha held a review meeting to take stock implementation of the new tax regime.
 

The Cabinet Secretary asked secretaries of various departments to give their feedback on the rollout of GST.

Apart from Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, the meeting saw participation from about 20 secretaries from key departments.

All the top brass of CBEC were present in the meeting.

On June 20, Sinha had taken GST preparedness meeting with 30 ministries and departments and had asked the secretaries to organise outreach meetings and publicity campaigns through their departments and PSUs for explaining the provisions of new law and rules to their stakeholders.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) was rolled out from July 1 and the finance ministry had yesterday said that the two days of GST rollout has passed "without any major problems being reported" from the field offices.

"The Revenue Department has got encouraging reports from the roadside dhabas and big restaurants as well as from kirana shops to departmental stores which, in turn, have started getting acclimatised to the new tax system," it had said.

The biggest indirect tax since Independence, GST removes at least 17 different taxes and transforms India into a single market for seamless movement of goods and services.