Auto Industry : Taxation

India has a well developed tax structure. The power to levy taxes and duties is distributed among the three tiers of Government, in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Constitution. The main taxes/duties that the Union Government is empowered to levy are:- Income Tax (except tax on agricultural income, which the State Governments can levy), Customs duties, Central Excise and Sales Tax and Service Tax. The principal taxes levied by the State Governments are:- Sales Tax (tax on intra-State sale of goods), Stamp Duty (duty on transfer of property), State Excise (duty on manufacture of alcohol), Land Revenue (levy on land used for agricultural/non-agricultural purposes), Duty on Entertainment and Tax on Professions & Callings. The Local Bodies are empowered to levy tax on properties (buildings, etc.), Octroi (tax on entry of goods for use/consumption within areas of the Local Bodies), Tax on Markets and Tax/User Charges for utilities.

Excise Duty

Central Excise duty is an indirect tax levied on those automobiles which are manufactured in India and are meant for home consumption. The taxable event is 'manufacture' and the liability of central excise duty arises as soon as the automobiles are manufactured. It is a tax on manufacturing, which is paid by a manufacturer, who passes its incidence on to the customers.

Types of Excise Duties

Basic Excise Duty: This is the duty leviable under First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 at the rates mentioned in the said Schedule.

Special Excise Duty: This is the duty leviable under Second Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 at the rates mentioned in the said Schedule. At present this is leviable on very few items.

National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD): Normally known as NCCD. This duty is levied as per section 136 of the Finance Act, 2001, as a surcharge on specified goods.

Excise Duties and Cesses Leviable under Miscellaneous Act:On certain specified goods, in addition to the aforesaid duties, prescribed rate of excise duty and cess is also leviable.

Education Cesson excisable goods is levied in addition to any other duties of excise chargeable on such goods, under the Central Excise Act, 1944 or any other law for the time being in force.

Custom Duty

Customs Duty (Import duty and Export tax) is a type of indirect tax levied on goods imported into India as well as on goods exported from India. Taxable event is import into or export from India. In India, the basic law for levy and collection of customs duty is Customs Act 1962. It provides for levy and collection of duty on imports and exports, import/export procedures, prohibitions on importation and exportation of goods, penalties, offences, etc.

Export duties are levied occasionally to mop up excess profitability in international prices of goods in respect of which domestic prices may be low at the given time. But the sweep of import duties is quite wide.

VAT

Taxation of inputs, like raw materials, components and other intermediaries has a number of limitations. In production process, raw material passes through various processes stages till a final product emerges. Thus, output of the first manufacturer becomes input for second manufacturer and so on. When the inputs are used in the manufacture of product `A', the cost of the final product increases not only on account of the cost of the inputs, but also on account of the duty paid on such inputs. As the duty on the final product is on ad valorem basis and the final cost of product `A' includes the cost of inputs, inclusive of the duty paid, duty charged on product `A' meant doubly taxing raw materials. In other words, the tax burden goes on increasing as raw material and final product passes from one stage to other because, each subsequent purchaser has to pay tax again and again on the material which has already suffered tax. This is called cascading effect or double taxation.

This very often distorted the production structure and did not allow the correct assessment of the tax incidence. Therefore, the Government tried to remove these defects of the Central Excise System by progressively relieving inputs from excise and countervailing duties. An ideal system to realize this objective would have been to adopt value added taxation (VAT). However, on account of some practical difficulties it was not possible to fully adopt the value added taxation.

Hence, Government evolved a new scheme, `MODVAT' (Modified Value Added Tax). MODVAT Scheme which essentially follows VAT Scheme of taxation. i.e. if a manufacturer A purchases certain components(raw materials) from another manufacturer B for use in its product. B would have paid excise duty on components manufactured by it and would have recovered that excise duty in its sales price from A. Now, A has to pay excise duty on product manufactured by it as well as bear the excise duty paid by the supplier of raw material B. Under the MODVAT scheme, an Original Equipment Manufacturer can take credit of excise duty paid by First Tier and Second Tier suppliers. It amounts to excise duty only on additions in value by each manufacturer at each stage.

MODVAT Scheme ensures the revenue of the same order and at same time the price of the final product could be lower. Apart from reducing the costs through elimination of cascade effect, and bringing in greater rationalization in tax structure and also bringing in certainty in the amount of tax leviable on the final product, this scheme will help the consumer to understand precisely the impact of taxation on the cost of any product.

Subsequently, MODVAT scheme was restructured into CENVAT (Central Value Added Tax) scheme. A new set of rules 57AA to 57AK , under The CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004, were framed and whatever restrictions were there in MODVAT Scheme were put to an end and comparatively, a free hand was given to the assesses.

Under the CENVAT Scheme, a manufacturer of final product or provider of taxable service shall be allowed to take credit of duty of excise as well as of service tax paid on any input received in the factory or any input service received by manufacturer of final product. Inputs include goods used in the manufacture of capital goods which are further used in the factory of the manufacturer.