GST : Government announces slew of initiatives for the benefit of consumers and businesses post the 23rd meeting of the GST Council on November 10 at Guwahati.
The government has taken one of the biggest steps towards easing the pain of the consumers and businesses ever since it implemented the GST law on July 01. The reforms announced post the 23rd meeting of the GST council shall are one big solid step in laying a strong foundation for a “Good and Simple Tax” regime.
On one side the government announced the reduction in rate of tax for over 200 items. Products ranging from chocolates to perfumes to fans to household grocery items would now become cheaper as the benefits of lower rates get passed on to the consumers. Eating out at restaurants shall become cheaper with a composition levy of 5% without input tax credit. Only 50 items are now left in the peak slab rate of 28% as against 224 items earlier. These measures should provide a boost to the economy due to likely increase in domestic consumption. The new rates shall be effective November 15.
On the other hand, small and medium businesses have been given major relief by easing their compliance burden. The government has relaxed the provisions of the Composition Scheme by increasing the limit from Rs 1.0 Cr to Rs 1.5 Cr. GST rate of 1% will now be applicable to both traders and manufacturers. Further, E-commerce operators have been given relief as they are exempt from GST registration if their turnover is below Rs 20 lakhs and even if they are making interstate salesThis is a big step forward in helping small and medium players in this space.
Significant steps have also been taken to improve the ease of doing business for the small and medium enterprises. All taxpayers (except under Composition Scheme) shall be required to file returns in Form 3B till March 2018. All taxpayers with annual aggregate turnover of upto Rs 1.5 Cr need to file GSTR -1 on a quarterly basis. Tax payers will aggregate turnover over Rs 1.5 Cr shall file GSTR – 1 on a monthly basis. The time period for filing GSTR – 2 and GSTR -3 for the months of July 2017 to March 2018 shall be communicated at a later date.
Relief has also been provided in case of delayed filing of returns. If tax liability for the period is NIL, the late fee shall be Rs 20 per day. In other cases, it shall be Rs 50 per day. The aforesaid rates for delayed filing shall be applicable from filing of the return for the month of October onwards.
Needless to say, the government is not shying away from taking the necessary steps so required. It is important to support these initiatives by the government so that we are able to achieve the desired objective with which this reform was originally conceived.
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