“The figure of dealers opting for composition in GST is 5.12 lakh up to 30th (July). The last date for opting is August 16,” Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia tweeted.
Five lakh businesses have opted for the GST composition scheme, which allows them to pay taxes at a concessional rate and makes compliance easy, the government said today.
Nearly 71 lakh excise, service tax and VAT assessees have migrated to the GST Network (GSTN) till July 25. Besides, another 12 lakh new registrations came about under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
“The figure of dealers opting for composition in GST is 5.12 lakh up to 30th (July). The last date for opting is August 16,” Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia tweeted.
The composition scheme is an alternative method of levy of tax designed for small taxpayers whose turnover is up to Rs 75 lakh — Rs 50 lakh in the case of eight north-eastern states and the hilly state of Himachal Pradesh. The objective behind it is to bring simplicity and reduce the compliance cost for small taxpayers.
The scheme is optional under which manufacturers other than those of ice cream, pan masala and tobacco products have to pay a 2 per cent tax on their annual turnover. The tax rate is 5 per cent for restaurant services and 1 per cent for traders.
As per the Central GST Act, businesses are eligible to opt for the composition scheme if a person is not engaged in any inter-state outward supplies of goods and not into making any supply of goods through an electronic commerce operator who is required to collect tax at source.
While a regular taxpayer has to pay taxes on a monthly basis, a composition supplier is required to file only one return and pay taxes on a quarterly basis.
Also, a composition taxpayer is not required to keep detailed records that a normal taxpayer is supposed to maintain.
In a last minute decision, the government on Monday extended the deadline for filing Income Tax Returns (ITRs) and linking Aadhaar with the Permanent Account Number (PAN) of taxpayers.
While ITRs can now be filed by August 5, the Aadhaar-PAN linking can be done till 31 August.
The government had made mandatory the linking of the two databases for filing ITRs from 1 July, this year.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) issued a statement saying the dates have been extended on receipt of complaints from “some taxpayers” that they were unable to log on to the e-filing website of the Income Tax department.
There were also complaints that the assessees were unable to link Aadhaar with PAN because their names were mentioned differently in the database relating to the two documents, the CBDT, the policy making body of the IT department, said.
A senior tax department official said the decision was taken after a meeting of senior officers of the revenue department and CBDT was held in the finance ministry today to “ease out the panic situation”.
“For the purpose of e-filing return, it would be sufficient as of now to quote Aadhaar or acknowledgement number for having applied for Aadhaar in the e-filing website.
“The actual linking of PAN with Aadhaar can be done subsequently, but any time before August 31, 2017,” the CBDT said.
It, however, cautioned that the returns (ITRs) will not be processed “until the linkage of Aadhaar with PAN is done.”
“In order to facilitate the e-filing of return, it is also decided to give extension of five days for e-filing of return. The return can be filed upto August 5,” it said.
The department, till Sunday, had maintained that no extension would be given as already over 2 crore returns have been received and no major glitches on the e-filing portal-http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/– had been detected.
“While technical snags have been removed already, the main reason for failure of people to log in (the efiling portal) is because of last minute rush and panic in which those who have already logged in want to continue for the entire period for fear of losing it,” it said.
The official twitter handle of the I-T department said the move to enhance the time limit for filing ITRs beyond today was made “in view of difficulties faced by taxpayers.”
The department, this time, has also asked taxpayers to declare cash deposits made in bank accounts aggregating Rs 2 lakh or more, post demonetisation between November 9-December 30 last year, in the ITRs.
The ITRs to be filed by 31 July pertain to 2016-17 fiscal or assessment year 2017-18.
The Government on Friday said as many as 77.5 lakh traders are registered on GSTN and help desks have been set up in every commissionerate to facilitate filing of tax return. “Till July 18, 2017, the total number of GSTIN (Goods and Services Taxpayer Identification Number) registration is 77,55,416,” Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
He further said Internet is not required for doing or conducting business, but it would be required only for the purpose of filing of returns under the GST. “The Government has ensured that the return filling process is made convenient for all taxpayers by setting up help desks in every commissionerate and by appointing GST Suvidha Providers,” he said.
Gangwar in another reply said it is difficult to predict whether corruption will be wiped out, but the implementation of GST will definitely bring about transparency in business operations related to taxation. The implementation of GST in itself is expected to have a positive impact on the overall growth of the economy, he said, adding that it is also expected to have a positive impact on the ease of doing business and making India an even more attractive destination for foreign investments.
Various studies, including that from NCAER, have estimated that growth in GDP to be around 1-2 per cent due to the implementation of GST.Replying to another question, Gangwar said, since GST has been implemented only with effect from July 1, it cannot be stated that it helps to bring out black money at this moment.However, he said, the provision in SGST, CGST, UTGST and IGST have a self policing mechanism.
Businesses can start uploading their sale and purchase invoices generated post-July 1 on the GSTN portal from July 24, a top company official said today.
The Goods and Services Tax has kicked in from July 1 and so far, the GST Network, the company handling the IT backbone for the new tax regime, has been facilitating registration of businesses.
“We plan to launch the invoice upload utility on the portal on July 24 so that businesses can come forward and start uploading the invoices on a daily or weekly basis to avoid a month-end rush,” GSTN Chairman Navin Kumar told PTI.
Generating invoices for dealings above Rs. 200 and keeping invoice records in serial number even if maintained manually, are pre-requisites for claiming input tax credit under the GST regime.
The GSTN had last month launched an offline Excel format for businesses to keep their invoice records and from July 24 this Excel sheet can be uploaded on the portal.
Kumar said GSTN would put up a video on its portal to assist businesses in uploading invoices.
Besides, a call centre help desk has been set up to assist taxpayers regarding any query they might have about the new tax regime.
“We have been reaching out to trade and industry associations telling them that those who have about 10,000 invoices a day, they should upload it on GSTN portal on a daily/ weekly basis to avoid last moment rush,” Kumar said.
So far, over 69 lakh excise, VAT and Service Tax assessees have migrated to the GSTN portal and nearly five lakh new registrations have happened under GST.
Under GST, which is a single tax in place of multiple central and state levies such as excise, service tax and VAT, businesses are required to upload on GSTN portal invoices of their trade every month.
Kumar had earlier said the offline Excel tool can upload 19,000 invoices data on the GSTN portal at one go and the process takes just half-a-minute.
So, if businesses which generate about 10,000 invoices a day upload the data on a daily or weekly basis, it would be less cumbersome for them.
While uploading invoices on the GSTN portal, a business would need to mention the invoice number and date, customer name, shipping and billing address, customer and taxpayer’s GSTIN, place of supply and HSN code.
Also, the taxable value and discounts and rates of CGST, SGST and IGST would have to be filled, along with item wise details including description, quantity and price.
Contrary to gloomy predictions, the roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST) has been a much smoother affair and the industry has adapted to it without major hassles.
Contrary to gloomy predictions, the roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST) has been a much smoother affair and the industry has adapted to it without major hassles. As FE spoke to a cross-section of the industry, several government officials and the administrative and field levels, tax experts and analysts, some things came out clearly: The gap between the country’s existing indirect tax assessee base and those registered on the GST Network has almost vanished, indicating that even large sections of small businesses that had the option of composition scheme decided to join the GST bandwagon. Grouses over the compliance burden that the new tax has imposed on small businesses are fast disappearing except for the cavils of those not wanting to report their entire transaction volume for fear of increased income tax liability. There are of course some niggling issues like how to compute the tax liability under the reverse charge mechanism but these too are getting resolved.
FE spoke to Delhi-based companies consisting of electronics dealers, auto parts dealers, small chartered accountant (CA) firms among others. While most of the businesses were VAT assessees in the previous era, the CA firm registered on the GSTN portal as a first-time taxpayer.
“Migrating to GSTN was a simple process that only took ten minutes,” Nitin Gupta of Siyaram Bros, a company sells automobile parts to retailers across the country. Gupta said with over `30 crore in annual turnover, his company has had a smooth ride in the first ten days of the new indirect taxation regime, that marks a giant leap towards a one-nation- one-tax regime. Although, businesses have often stated that filing returns in GST would be complicated, Gupta said that most of the processes are similar to what companies were doing under the VAT system. “We are still a month away from filing the first return but I don’t see a problem,” he said.
Govind Kumar of Baba Computers and Sandeep Mittal of Mittal Sandeep and Associates, a CA firm, concurred.
For them, the GSTN registration did not involve any glitches. Both the companies had been using accounting and tax software from Tally, and have now switched to GST-enabled version of the same. The software solution is expected to cost about `11,000 per year.
Gupta, however, added that those retailers the company deals with have been in state of panic largely due to lack of awareness. The company expects smooth flow of input tax credits as it buys from big businesses who are expected to be GST-compliant. “Some of the retailers who we sell to may not be ready, which could impact our sale volume,” Gupta said.
Mittal, who runs the CA firm, said that most of his clients were assessees before and have migrated to GSTN without a hiccup. Among other issues, his firm has advised small businesses on whether to opt for general GSTN registration or become a taxpayer under composition scheme.
The scheme allows easier compliance for certain businesses with annual turnover of less than Rs 75 lakh. However, according to the law, firms under the scheme can neither avail input tax credit nor supply to other states.
“Most of my client deal with inter-state supplies and hence they aren’t eligible for the composition scheme so far,” Mittal said. He added that he has advised a few firm to opt for the scheme based on a cost-benefit analysis but even these businesses are keen to avail input tax credits.
Speaking about the the issues faced by his business, Gupta admitted that he wasn’t quite clear about the reverse charge mechanism and how to deposit tax collected under it with the government at the time of filing returns.
According to GST law, a recipient is required to collect and deposit taxes under reverse charge mechanism for certain services including transportation. Of the 81 lakh existing taxpayers, 68 lakh have migrated to GSTN while nearly 2 lakh new taxpayers have also registered on the portal at the end of June. The GST tax base appearing smaller than in the previous regime is a misnomer. Earlier, a large section of the taxpayers needed to register seperately with the Centre (for excise, countervailing duty on imports and service tax) and states (for VAT). The GST has removed these duplications.
The government’s idea of including the number of Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) subscribers to calculate formal jobs is likely to swell the latter’s formal number.
For, the PF body has added a little more than 10 million members in the past three months, taking its membership to around 48 mn, from 37 mn on March 31.
This has been due to EPFO’s new enrolment scheme. Under it, employers got the opportunity to file declarations for unregistered employees with a nominal fine of Rs 1 per annum. According to data reviewed by Business Standard, the body has added 10,131,453 subscribers under the new scheme, higher than its expectation of 10 mn new ones. Most of the rise has come from urban areas such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru — Mumbai has added the highest number of subscribers, at 1,287,500.
NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya had earlier said a task force for calculation of employment would use other data sources such as EPFO, National Pension System and other private pension schemes for formalisation of the workforce, beside existing sources like the National Sample Survey Office and labour bureau.
The panel is headed by Panagariya himself. It was set up to suggest a revamp of employment data surveys, to ensure timely and reliable data for policy making. There was a view within the government that the current surveys did not provide a real picture on job creation.
However, the EPFO subscriber base might only be showing a formalisation of the workforce, not an addition to the job numbers. “As a result of this (our move), workers who earlier were out of the social protection coverage will now get these benefits,” V P Joy, the central PF commissioner, told Business Standard.
The government has made quoting the Aadhaar number a must at the time of applying for a permanent account number, or PAN, card.
Individuals having permanent account number (PAN) will have to link it to their existing Aadhaar number from 1 July, a Finance Ministry notification said on Wednesday.
Amending income tax rules, the government has made quoting the 12-digit identification number or Aadhaar enrolment ID compulsory while applying for PAN, which is mandatory for filing tax returns, opening of bank accounts and financial transactions beyond a threshold.
Every person who has been allotted PAN as on the 1st day of July shall intimate his Aadhaar number to the tax authorities, the notification from revenue department said.
Biometrics identification enabled by Aadhaar proves the identity of the PAN holder and helps tax authorities to crack cases of multiple PANs held by the same person with the idea of tax evasion. As many as 20.7 million taxpayers have already linked their Aadhaar with PAN. There are over 250 million PAN card holders in the country while Aadhaar has been issued to 1.15 billion people.
The rule will come into force from 1 July, the revenue department said while amending Rule-114 of the Income Tax Act, which deals in application for allotment of PAN.
Earlier this month, the tax department had clarified that the relief granted by the Supreme Court regarding non-cancellation of PAN for not linking Aadhaar with it was applicable only in cases of people who do not have Aadhaar and do not wish to obtain it for the time being. Their PAN cards will not be treated as invalid. For tax filing, Aadhaar is mandatory from 1 July.
“The notification does not specify the form and manner in which Aadhaar should be intimated, neither the timelines for such intimation have been set out,” said Sonu Iyer, tax partner and people advisory services leader, EY.
“Individuals having a PAN but no Aadhaar application number who would be filing an income tax return post June 30, 2017 will need to apply for Aadhaar in order to be able to file the income tax return. Individuals who are not required to file an income tax return but who have a PAN and are eligible to obtain Aadhaar (whether they have one or not) as on July 1, 2017 should wait for further notification which will specify the date and manner in which the two identification numbers shall be linked,” added Iyer.
Aadhaar-linked PAN enables taxpayers to verify their returns through a one-time password sent to their phone numbers at the time of filing returns. This makes return filing easier as there is no need for an e-filer to send a signed physical copy of the return to the department, completing the legal formality of filing. Aadhaar and the password performs the verification function of an assessee’s signature in a physical copy of the return that pledges the information furnished to be true.
