Respected Professional Colleagues,
At last 22nd meeting of GST Council has given some breathing space to trade and industry people. Certain facilitative changes have been recommended to ease the burden of compliance on small and medium businesses. Some of them are :
Composition Scheme
a) Threshold turnover to opt for composition scheme is raised from ₹ 75 lakh to ₹ 1 crore. The option once exercised shall become operational from the 1st day of the month.
b) It has been decided that the persons, who are otherwise eligible for availing the composition scheme and are providing any exempt service, shall be eligible for composition scheme e.g. a doctor running a clinic (exempted service) can now opt for composition scheme for its pharmacy business.
Relief for Small & Medium Enterprises
a) Earlier any person providing inter-state service (other than job worker) was not eligible for threshold exemption of ₹ 20 lakh, however now such service providers are exempted from obtaining registration if their turnover is less than ₹ 20 lakh. Any person who has already taken registration may opt for cancellation.
b) Now small & medium businesses having turnover up to ₹ 1.5 crore shall file quarterly returns in GSTR-1, 2 & 3 Form and shall also make payment on quarterly basis. This provision shall be effective from October-December 2017 quarter. However, all taxpayers will be required to file Form GSTR-3B on a monthly basis till December, 2017.
c) Reverse charge mechanism u/s. 9(4) of the CGST Act and section 5(4) of the IGST Act shall be suspended till 31-3-2018.
d) Small units having aggregate turnover up to ₹ 1.5 crore are exempted from payment of GST on advance received towards supply of goods. GST shall be paid only on supply of goods. This exemption is not for supply of service.
e) Service of GTA provided to unregistered person shall be exempted from GST.
Other measures
a) Registration and operationalisation of TDS/TCS provisions shall be postponed till 31-3-2018.
b) E-way Bill shall be implemented in staggered manner w.e.f. 1st January, 2018 and full-fledged roll out w.e.f. 1st April, 2018.
Export benefit
a) Refunds of input tax for exports outside India shall begin from 10th October, 2017 for month of July and from 18th October, 2017 for month of Aug.
b) Refunds of IGST and input tax for export to SEZ shall begin from 18th October, 2017.
c) Merchant exporter can now procure goods from domestic supplier on payment of GST @ 0.1%. However, exporters holding adv. authorisation/EPCG and EOU can now procure goods from domestic supplier without payment of GST.
d) As a measure of relief, the Government has also extended the deadline for sale of pre-GST goods with stickers of revised rates by 3 months to December 31, 2017.
e) 27 items including unbranded namkeen, unbranded ayurvedic medicines, hand made yarn, ICDs food packages, khakra, chapatti, waste obtained from rubber, plastic and paper have been brought under 5% slab.
f) In a drive to curb black money and shell companies, the Government has collected vital information from the banks. 13 banks have submitted their data stating that 5,800 companies (out of more than 2 lakh that were struck off) were operating 13,140/- accounts. Few of the companies are found to have more than 100 accounts to their names. These companies were having a meager balance of ₹ 22.05 crore to their credit on 8th November, 2016, however from 9th November, 2016, till date they are struck off, these companies have altogether deposited a huge amount of ₹ 4,573.87 crore in their accounts and have withdrawn an equally large amount of ₹ 4,552 crore. This is the state of affairs of Indian economy and it is apprehended that this may be the tip of an iceberg of corruption, black money and black deeds of these companies.
g) On income tax administrative site, CBDT have issued an instruction No. 8/2017 dated 29th September, 2017 prescribing e-proceeding as a part of e-governance. E-proceeding would enable seamless flow of letters/notices, questionnaire, orders etc. from Assessing Officer to the account of concerned assessee in e-filing website. On receipt of departmental communication, assessee would be able to submit the response along with attachments by uploading the same on e-filing portal. The response submitted by the assessee would be viewed by the Assessing Officer electronically in Income Tax Business Application (ITBA module). It is also prescribed that in assessment proceeding being carried out through e-proceeding facility, a particular proceeding may take place manually e.g. where manual books of account or documents have to be examined or where notices u/s. 131 are to be issued or where examination of witness is required or where a showcause notice contemplating any adverse view is issued by the Assessing Officer and the assessee request for personal hearing to explain the matter.
Friends, lastly I have to state that the elections in the entire zone of our Federation are being held and I appeal to all the members to maintain decorum. The object of our Federation is a National Service and that too to impart education. This is a pious service which can be done even without having any post. Out past Presidents have built-up this organisation brick by brick and it is our duty to maintain its strength.
With these words I conclude my communiqué with the quote of Swami Vivekananda –
“Self-sacrifice, indeed, is the basis of all civilisations. Infinite patience, infinite purity and infinite perseverance are the secret of success in a good cause”.
With Best Regards
Prem Lata Bansal
National President