GOODS AND SERVICES TAX REFORMS TO SUPPORT SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESS ENTERPRISES IN INDIA

The Goods and Services Tax Council (GST Council) of India has recently announced a list of new amendments and rules benefiting the small businesses on 10^th January 2019. Earlier, under the GST regime, there was a uniform threshold of Rs. 20 Lakh for manufacturers, service providers and traders for registration and payment of GST.

The following are the new set of regulations that the GST Council announced on 10^th January 2019 for the benefit of the small businesses in India:

Increase in GST registration and payment limit from Rs. 20 Lakhs to Rs. 40 Lakhs for suppliers of goods:

The aggregate turnover of Rs. 40 Lakhs would now be exempted from the GST in general cases

The aggregate turnover of Rs 20 Lakhs would now be exempted from the GST in the hilly and north eastern states and special category states.

The small business having an annual turnover of Rs. 50 Lakh in the preceding financial year may avail the benefits of a composition scheme whereby they have to pay only 6% GST.

Free accounting and billing software would be provided to small taxpayers by Goods and Service Tax Network, a not for profit organisation owned by Government of India and private players jointly.

The tax payers under composition scheme have to file only one return in a year.

The GST Council decided to set up a seven-member Group of Ministers (GoM) to examine the proposal of composition scheme for real estate sector.

These reforms would be implemented tentatively from the 1^st of April of 2019 for the ease of business of the small and medium business sectors.

Suchit Patel

Associate

The Indian Lawyer

With

Harini Daliparthy

Senior Associate

The Indian Lawyer