India’s most ambitious indirect tax reform Goods and Services Tax (GST) can be rolled out sometime in the next financial year in case the April 2012 deadline is missed, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) chairman S Dutt Majumder said on Friday.

Speaking at a conference on GST, Majumder said it is not impossible to implement the new tax regime from April next year. However, even if the deadline is missed, it can be implemented from May, June or in the following months.

He further said that the negative list for services (which means most services would be taxed as against those on a select list as at present) can be brought along with GST, adding that the contribution of service tax to the indirect tax kitty is 20%, while service sector accounts for over 50% of the GDP.

?The service tax share (in the indirect tax kitty) should be enhanced,? he added.

The CBEC chairman said that the taskforce set up to put together a legislation on the GST will submit its report within two weeks. ?By mid-September, we hope to finalise the business rules,? he said.

In this year’s Budget Session, the government introduced a Constitutional Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha to facilitate the GST launch.

The government is planning a dual GST with central and state components being applied on roughly the same base. The new indirect tax regime has already missed schedules twice ? April 2010 and April 2011.

Some states are jittery that the proposed Centre-state council in the GST regime would virtually undermine states? constitutional rights to devise tax policies and determine rates. GST will replace the multitude of central and state indirect taxes and create a common market across India for goods and services. Recently, the empowered committee of state finance ministers has elected Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi as the new chairman to sort out differences.

Indirect taxes such as excise duty and additional excise duty, service tax, CVD, all surcharges and cesses, VAT, CST, luxury tax and entry tax will be subsumed into GST, the 13th Finance Commission had said in its report. This would lower prices and remove distortions, besides simplifying the tax regime.

Industry chambers are in favour of early introduction of GST. It will be the largest reform since the industrial de-licensing of 1991 and according to Vijay Kelkar, who headed Thirteenth Finance Commission, could add $500 billion to India’s GDP.