Ease in GST Compliance for SMEs
NEW DELHI, October 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
The GST Council, in its 22nd meeting which was held on October 6th, 2017 in the national capital under Chairmanship of the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley has recommended few facilitative changes to ease the burden of compliance on small and medium businesses. Neeraj Bhagat, FCA of Neeraj Bhagat & Co., provides an insight on this, which is as follows:
Composition scheme
The composition scheme shall be made available to taxpayers having annual aggregate turnover of up to Rs. 1 crore as compared to the current turnover threshold of Rs. 75 lacs. This threshold of turnover for special category States, except Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand, shall be increased to Rs. 75 lacs from Rs. 50 lacs. The turnover threshold for Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand shall be Rs. 1 crore. The facility of availing composition under the increased threshold shall be available to both migrated and new taxpayers up to 31.03.2018 said Neeraj Bhagat, FCA of Neeraj Bhagat & Co. The option once exercised shall become operational from the first day of the month immediately succeeding the month in which the option to avail the composition scheme is exercised. New entrants to this scheme shall have to file the return in FORM GSTR-4 only for that portion of the quarter from when the scheme becomes operational and shall file returns as a normal taxpayer for the preceding tax period. The increase in the turnover threshold will make it possible for greater number of taxpayers to avail the benefit of easier compliance under the composition scheme and is expected to greatly benefit the MSME sector.
Persons who are otherwise eligible for composition scheme but are providing any exempt service (such as extending deposits to banks for which interest is being received) were being considered ineligible for the said scheme, shall now be eligible for the composition scheme.
Relief for Small and Medium Enterprises
Presently, anyone making inter-state taxable supplies, except inter-State job worker, is compulsorily required to register, irrespective of turnover. It has now been decided to exempt those service providers whose annual aggregate turnover is less than Rs. 20 lacs (Rs. 10 lacs in special category states except J&K) from obtaining registration even if they are making inter-State taxable supplies of services. This measure is expected to significantly reduce the compliance cost of small service providers.
To facilitate the ease of payment and return filing for small and medium businesses with annual aggregate turnover up to Rs. 1.5 crores, it has been decided that such taxpayers shall be required to file quarterly returns in FORM GSTR-1, 2 & 3 and pay taxes only on a quarterly basis, starting from the Third Quarter of this Financial Year i.e. October-December, 2017. The registered buyers from such small taxpayers would be eligible to avail ITC on a monthly basis. The due dates for filing the quarterly returns for such taxpayers shall be announced in due course.
Other Facilitation Measures
- E-way bill provisions deferred till April 2018
- Reverse charge to be abolished till 31 March
- Merchant exporters will now have to pay nominal GST of 0.1% for procuring goods from domestic suppliers for export
- Immediate relief to be given by extending the Advance Authorization / EPCG/ 100% EOU schemes to sourcing inputs 4m abroad & domestic suppliers
- E wallet shall be used for advance refund. This would help exporters in furthering their business
About the author:
Neeraj Bhagat is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) since 1997. He is also an Associate member of Association of International Accountants, United Kingdom. He is the founder of Neeraj Bhagat & Co, an Indian Chartered Accountancy firm serving various MNC'S from across the globe. Neeraj Bhagat & Co. has its offices at New Delhi, Gurgaon and Mumbai. They are part of Allinial Global Accounting Association which is one of the World's Top 10 in accounting associations.
For more information please log on to: http://www.neerajbhagat.com.
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