New Delhi, May 1 (PTI): The GST would not increase compliance burden on assessees and all apprehensions in this regard are misplaced, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said on Monday.
“Many people think that implementation of GST would result in increase in compliance cost. This is completely misplaced,” he said while addressing netizens on Facebook.
Explaining the rationale, he said people have to keep different law books for filing return for various taxes like VAT, Excise etc in the present taxation regime.
“But with the roll out of GST, there would be a single tax and accounting for this will be very simple. It can be done through an offline excel form provided by GST Network. If someone uses this form for keeping record of purchase and sales, then he can use this for filing return. Thus, compliance would be minimised,” he said.
Adhia, who is spearheading implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), said the finance ministry is gearing up for its roll out and five days training has already been given to officers.
Besides, IT training for them is going on, he said.
The government intends to implement the GST from July 1 and the GST Council headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has finalised four rate categories of 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent after unifying levies like central excise, service tax and VAT.
Fitment will be done by adding the total incidence of current taxation (central plus state levies) and then putting the good or service in the tax bracket closest to it.
Adhia also said indirect tax burden may come down in the new GST regime.
“There would be many goods and services which would be out of GST so it would provide benefit to common man in respect of taxes. The roll out GST would be either tax neutral or there could be reduction of tax burden,” he said.
With regard to traders, he said, the tax filing would start from the threshold level of Rs 20 lakh and registration below the threshold limit is not required.
Within one state under one PAN only one registration is allowed, he said.
No other registration is allowed for one business but there is requirement of separate registration in case of supply of products in more than one state, he added.
For coding purpose, he said, no Harmonized System of Nomenclature (HSN) code is required for business turnover of Rs 1.5 crore.
‘Traders of only petrol, diesel need not register under GST’
New Delhi, May 1 (IANS): Traders dealing exclusively in petrol, diesel and other commodities that are exempt or have been kep zero-rated under the upcoming Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime need not register, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said on Monday.
“If you are dealing in a commodity on which GST is not applicable, the trader does not need to register under GST. Petrol, diesel, aviation turbine fuel (ATF), crude oil and natural gas dealers need not register under GST,” Adhia said in a Q&A session via Facebook Live.
But he added that if the traders are also dealing in other goods, then they need to register under the new indirect tax regime.
Adhia said that since 30-40 per cent of states’ income is derived from potable alcohol and petroleum products due to which they preferred to keep these out of GST as of now.
The states would later review and decide if these products need to be brought under GST, he added.
The government is targeting the rollout date of July 1 for GST and Adhia said “all big or small traders should get ready for it”.
