Nagpur: The Nag Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce (NVCC), the parent body of various trade, commerce & industry from Vidarbha region and their Associations, has sent letters to Union Finance Minister and Chairman of GST Council Arun Jaitley, Maharashtra Finance Minister and Member of GST Council Sudhir Mungantiwar and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and requested them to review some of the provisions of GST, its implementation & compliances.
In its letters the NVCC has said that it is instrumental in addressing the needs of business community from the region and operate as a bridge between the Central, State & Local Government and business community, so as to balance the interest of both sides. NVCC whole heartedly supported GST, the biggest reform in indirect tax since independence, and has worked with implementing agencies for its grand success by organizing workshops and seminars. Recently it has started weekly GST Helpdesk for small and marginal traders from the region and based on the input/feedback from Helpdesk we have to submit the following for your consideration and intervention.
- REVERSE CHARGE MECHANISM (RCM)
The provisions for Reverse Charge Mechanism under GST are confusing and tedious to comply.We are of firm opinion that RCM though being revenue neutral in majority of cases shall increase tax litigations in future. Small and marginal traders are saddled with the responsibility to generate self invoice with all particulars prescribed for Tax Invoiceand pay tax thereon. This has increased the compliance cost and also blocked their working capital.
We suggest this revenue neutral exercise should be withdrawn so that precious man hours at both end can be utilized for other productive activities.
- FREQUENCY OF RETURNS
To maintain the ease of doing business filing of quarterly returns is provided for Composition Suppliers.
We suggest quarterly return filing should also be provided for suppliers having annual turnover up to Rs. Five Crores.
- INVOICE WISE HSN WISE QUANTITY DETAILS TO BE MENTIONED IN RETURNS
Almost all traders visiting the Helpdesk have expressed their inability to provide the Invoice wise HSN wise Quantity details in returns. During discussions we understand that it will take time for them to completely switch to online accounting system, without which it makes difficult for them to comply with this provision.
Considering the level of penetration of information technology (in true sense) in our country we suggest GST Council should ease this provision, to make it taxpayer friendly by seeking invoice wise details in single line and withdrawing requirement of HSN wise details.
- REVISION OF FORMS NOT PERMITTED
It is said “To err is human” – there is always a chance of error in human working and machines are no exception to this.GST being a new law and very little time was made available to all concerned to understand the same, resulting in difference of opinion/interpretation hencemistakes are bound to happen.
It is therefore most humbly requested to introduce provision for revision of returns may be with certainrestrictions.It is also requested that after submitting the form, preview of return should be made available with facility to make necessary correction, if any, before it is finally uploaded on the portal.
- PAYMENT MODES
Over the counter payment is allowed up to Rs. Ten Thousand and above this threshold limit payment is required to be made by any of the prescribed electronic mode, for all category of taxpayers’ i.e. regular (monthly), composition (quarterly).
For making the facility of over the counter payment meaningful,we request to increase the threshold limit to at least Rs. Fifty Thousand.
- INFRASTRUCTURE
We have witnessed that the required infrastructure at government end for smooth compliance of GST i.e. GSTN, is not fullyready. Administrationis compelled to defer the dates for filing of regularmonthly returns for July and August by introducing an additional Form “3B”. Though these measures have been portrayed, as relief measure for hardship faced by taxpayers,but the software has failed in handling even filing of the summary returns “3B”. We are further surprised to learn from our members that mails to departments Helpdesk are bounced with remarks ‘mail box of recipient is full’.
Filing of GSTR 1 and Trans 1 has turned out to be a challenging exercise for dealers and professionals as well. Website is working very slow and showing various errors, Trans 2 form is not yet introduced and form 3B has been extended till December 2017.
Also considering the status of required infrastructure, seamless supply of electricity and internet, at taxpayers end particularly in rural areas we suggest differing filing of regular returns i.e. GSTR 1, 2A and 3 till December 2017.
- AGGREGATE TURNOVER CRITERIA FOR REGISTRATION
The provisions mandate that a person is required to take registration if his aggregate turnover crosses Rs. Twenty Lacs, aggregate turnover includes value of exempted supplies. For this reason a doctor, educational institution or like persons having minuscule taxable turnover are required to take registration and comply with the other procedural provisions.
We suggest that for the purposes of calculating aggregate turnover of a person for registration taxable supplies on pan India basis should only be considered.
- PENALTY BEING IMPOSED ON LATE FILING
It has been observed that traders are facing multiple issues in return filing due to untimely or lack of clarifications. Hon. Finance Minister and his colleague Ministers including Revenue Secretary has on various occasions announced that during the initial phase no coercive actions would be taken against taxpayers and penalty for late filing of returns is one among other coercive steps. Council has recently waived penalty for late filing of returns for July and August.
We suggest that penalty for late filing of return should be waived for the current financial year i.e. up to March 2017.
- MEDIA REPORTS ON POSSIBLE INCREASE IN THRESHOLD LIMIT FOR COMPOSITION SCHEME
There are media reports suggesting that Council may increase the threshold limit for availing Composition Scheme to Rs. One Crore.
The provisions’ for Composition Scheme as they stand today is complicated and impractical to comply with, hence scheme has not been received well by small and marginal traders.
We earnestly suggest Hon’ble Council to make the provisions of the scheme more taxpayer friendly by extending it to job workers, permitting inter-state transactions, removing disabilities prescribed for opening stock, so as to enable the small and marginal traders and service providers to avail the benefit of the scheme and thus reduce the burden of tax administration.
We are confident that the woes of business community in general and small and marginal traders in particular will be considered and addressed by the pro-people Government under the leadership of our beloved Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
