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MOTORINDIA
l
January 2012
135
FAIASPDA apprehensions over
impending GST
The Government will be introducing GST very
shortly. For the purpose, it proposes to introduce
a Constitution Amendment Bill in Parliament. The
draft Bill has laid down contours of the proposed
regime. The Bill stipulates that the powerful GST
Council will be created to act as a joint forum for
the Centre and the States which will decide on the
rate of tax, threshold limits, etc. The entire process
needs to be handled in a systematic manner.
Addressing the 49th annual general meeting of
FAIASPDA in Mumbai, Mr. U.K. Bhaskaran Nair,
the new President of the Federation, said since the
Government has not issued even a White Paper till
date, the trade and industry is unable to compre-
hend the dimensions of the proposed tax and offer
its suggestions with regard to implementation of
the new tax regime. However, the Federation will try
to convince the Government of the need for not fixing
a higher rate of taxes on spareparts and a higher serv-
ice tax on the items used in the automobile trade and
industry.
The automobile trade and industry contributes much
for the country’s economic development by providing
employment to lacks of people directly or indirectly.
Therefore, the very purpose of introducing the new tax
has been defeated, keeping in view that there are other
taxes in force. At the same time, it will be impossible
to bring about uniformity in VAT all over the country.
The Standards of Weights & Measures (Packaged
Commodities) Rules, 1977, is also not practicable for
the trade in view of the nature of business and huge
volume of items stored and handled for an indefinite
association update
period. The Government would do well to exempt the
automotive spareparts trade from the ambit of these
rules on the ground that they are engineering items, Mr.
Nair added.
Mr. Bhaskaran Nair, a soft-spoken young man, en-
tered the automobile business after his academic career
with French Motor Car Co. Ltd., Guwahati, and later on
shifted to MGF Ltd. of Cochin. He started his independ-
ent venture in 1982 under the name & style of Associ-
ated Auto Enterprises in Calicut. Now he is the Manag-
ing Partner in Associated Agencies, Calicut.
Mr. Nair is closely associated with a lot of activities
connected with rural development and social and eco-
nomic, upliftment of the down-trodden. Widely trav-
elled, he is fully aware of the problems of the automo-
bile spareparts trade and industry.
He is also closely associated with CASPDA, Calicut,
which he served in various capacties such as Secretary
and Vice President. He is also associated with the Fed-
eration of All Kerala Automobile Spare Parts Dealers
Associations which he served as General Secretary for
eight years.
w
Mr. U.K. Bhaskaran Nair, President, FAIASPDA
“The laws should be made simple and transpar-
ent. Imposing four per cent VAT on the trade in-
stead of 12.5 per cent would bring many traders
within the tax net.”
– Mr. U.K. Bhaskaran Nair