Browsed by
Tag: Tax regime

gst tourism
State tourism ministers seek cut in GST on hotel rooms to boost sector

State tourism ministers seek cut in GST on hotel rooms to boost sector

Comments 0 Comment

Tourism Minsters from different states today urged to reduced GST for hotel rooms. They also asked for simplification and rationalisation of various taxes and levies to attract tourists and take on global competition.

“The Tourism Ministers’ conclave 2019 at Kovalam, Kerala notes with concern that the GST Council of India has imposed 28 per cent GST on hotel room tariff over Rs 7,500 and 18 per cent tax on rooms with tariffs between Rs 2,500 and Rs 7,500. This tax rate is high compared with other countries,” said a resolution unanimously adopted by the conclave.

The resolution, moved by Karnataka Tourism Minister C T Ravi, said reduction in GST in hotel rooms is essential to attract more tourists.

The resolution also sought measures to reduce high airfares, as they are compelling leisure tourists to explore alternative global destinations.

“We express concern over the high airfares during peak season and festivals, which are forcing holiday-makers to opt for economical destinations. Besides, unexpected closure of certain airlines/carriers has led to increased airfares while minimal air connectivity with 2-tier and 3-tier cities has only compounded the problem,” it stated.

The conclave also took note of the high and varied inter-state tourist vehicle taxes and called for its rationalisation across all the states to ensure seamless travel.

In another resolution, the conclave proposed formation of Regional Tourism Councils and developing tourism circuits, which can be region-based and in neighbouring states. “We resolve to jointly promote our tourist attractions across the world in order to give a cutting edge to our campaigns,” it said.

The resolution, moved by Odisha Tourism Minister Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi, said setting up Regional Tourism Councils will facilitate periodic interaction among different states and enhance collaboration.

Union Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism and Culture Prahlad Singh Patel, according to a press release from the State government, said while the Centre would extend its support to development of tourism in all states, it is necessary to think about ‘one nation one tax’ regime.

“We should revisit our perception about GST. Tourists come not only to stay in hotels. We have to also think about one nation one tax. There is also the issue of transport tax. All states should evolve a consensus to streamline it,” he was quoted as saying.

Describing e-Visa as a revolutionary step, he said the Centre has taken some steps to streamline it and make it more tourist-friendly.

Source: Business-Standard.

XaTTaX is Best GST Software, Simplify your Financial matters with GST eFiling Software for Return Filing & GST Billing Software in India.

  • Automate Invoicing and get Paid Faster
  • Integration with all popular accounting software
  • Manage your GST and E-WayBill Software anytime anywhere using multiple devices

Get Our GST Software DEMO and E-WAY BILL DEMO for FREE

GST
Budget 2019: Amnesty scheme to resolve legacy tax issues

Budget 2019: Amnesty scheme to resolve legacy tax issues

Comments 0 Comment

The government has unveiled an amnesty scheme to resolve excise and service tax disputes pertaining to the period before the introduction of the goods and services tax to clear the backlog of cases and improve the ease of doing business. Even two years after the indirect tax regime was replaced by GST, the litigation doesn’t seem to die down and there is a huge pendency, tax experts said.

“The announcement relates to the legacy dispute resolution scheme, which intends to reduce the pending service tax and excise litigation of the pre-GST regime. It is expected that the scheme will support businesses where there are various ambiguous issues pending before the tribunals,” said Abhishek A Rastogi, a partner at Khaitan & Co.

All parties can settle the disputes, save those who face conviction and those who have moved the Settlement Commission. Relief under the scheme varies from 40% to 70% of the tax dues for cases other than voluntary disclosure cases, depending on the amount of tax dues involved.

“More than Rs 3.75 lakh crore is blocked in litigations in service tax and excise. There is a need to unload this baggage and allow business to move on,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Source: Economic- Times.

XaTTaX is Best GST Software, Simplify your Financial matters with GST eFiling Software for Return Filing & GST Billing Software in India.

  • Automate Invoicing and get Paid Faster
  • Integration with all popular accounting software
  • Manage your GST and E-WayBill Software anytime anywhere using multiple devices

Get Our GST Software DEMO and E-WAY BILL DEMO for FREE

GST
Karnataka to physically verify GST payers

Karnataka to physically verify GST payers

Comments 0 Comment

Karnataka commercial taxes department has directed physical verification of registered taxpayers under goods and services tax (GST) to ascertain their credentials, potentially starting ‘inspector raj’ in the new tax regime.

This directive could set precedence and other states may follow Karnataka’s footsteps.

This is being done to check tax evasion in sensitive commodities. Some of the sectors in focus include arecanut, cashew, rubber, auto parts, electrical goods, electronic goods, edible oil, readymade garments, timber, cement, and construction material.

Those entities that have generated electronic way (e-way) bills despite being a non-filer of returns could face such checks. Entities that have generated a large number of e-way bills compared to average e-way bills generated during previous periods and those with a gap between inward and outward supply e-way bill should expect such a visit by a tax officer.

“There is a need to verify the credentials of the newly registered person by visiting the business premises to verify the documents uploaded and to record the geo-coordinates of the business concern along with other details,” the directive said. A special IT module has been developed for this.


XaTTaX – World Class Automated eSolution for Return filing and e-Waybill

Source: Economic Times.
GST
Over 2 lakh assessees who migrated from VAT regime opt out of GST net

Over 2 lakh assessees who migrated from VAT regime opt out of GST net

Comments 0 Comment

The turnover of these assessees is below the prescribed threshold of ₹20 lakh: official

Over 2 lakh assessees have opted out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) registration as their turnover is below the prescribed threshold. This will benefit both the taxpayers and the GST Network, the IT backbone of the new indirect tax regime.

These are assessees who migrated from the VAT (Value-Added Tax) regime to the GST regime. A senior Finance Ministry official told BusinessLine: “Turnover of these assessees are below the threshold of ₹20 lakh (₹10 lakh in some States), which means they are not required to continue under the new regime, though they think otherwise.” During the pre-GST regime, States had different slabs for registration under VAT/ST, which was as low as ₹1 lakh and could go up to ₹10 lakh: the thresholds for Service Tax and Central Excise were ₹10 lakh and ₹1.5 crore respectively.

With the universal threshold, it was obvious that some old assessees will opt out. This meant if the turnover of the entity is less than the GST threshold and the assessees were not willing to go for voluntary registration they had the option to get the provisional registration cancelled and move out of the GST net.

However, many assessees failed to complete the process, and so they continued to be a part of the GST-assessee base.

Originally, 88.61 lakh applied for migration and got the provisional certificate. Once all the formalities were completed, the provisional certificate was confirmed. The official said over 24.5 lakh did not complete the formalities and out of these 2.34 have opted for de-registration.

This meant there are over 64 lakh migrated taxpayers now. At present, GST has over 1.16 crore assessees which are a combination of migrated and new assessees.

Tax base

Another Finance Ministry official felt that with de-registration, the tax base will be effective. This kind of a tax base will serve two purposes — it will lighten the burden on the GSTN and will give a real picture of the indirect tax regime.

Tanushree Roy, Director – GST at Nangia Advisors LLP, said with a high number of assessees opting out of the GST registration it would enable them to focus more on business operations simultaneously reducing the costs and burden of undertaking the GST compliances.

This would also help the GSTN in efficient management of the portal and reduction in cost for maintenance of servers.

R Muralidharan, Senior Director at Deloitte India, said de-registration of over 2 lakh assessees will marginally reduce the traffic on GSTN as this is merely 3 per cent of the total return filers. Most of these assesses are likely to be below the threshold limit for registration.


Ease Your GST Filing & Invoice with XaTTaX GST Software

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine
GST
GST-based calculation confusing? Here are the new Casio calculators for India

GST-based calculation confusing? Here are the new Casio calculators for India

Comments 6 comments

The Narendra Modi government had implemented the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in July 2017. Even after a year of implementation of the new tax regime, many are confused on how it works.

Japanese multinational consumer electronics firm Casio has surveyed different Indian markets to understand the nuances of the invoicing process over the past year and come up with an easy solution. It has introduced two new calculators which are billed as the world’s first GST calculator.

 Christened MJ-120 GST and MJ-12GST, the new calculators have been designed for the Indian market and priced at Rs 395 and Rs 475, respectively. Casio claims the new calculators are ideal for anyone dealing with GST-based invoicing. Here are the features.In-built GST tabs – All the five GST slabs (0%, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%) are in-built in MJ-120GST and MJ-12GST. There are separate buttons for the GST slabs which are expected to reduce the number of clicks, hence reducing the time required to generate an invoice. In addition, the tax slabs are also changeable as per the industry needs.

Gross value (net value + tax) – Net value and tax paid under different GST slabs stay stored in the GST+0, GST+1, GST+2, GST+3 and GST +4 buttons and the overall value in the five slabs stays stored in the GST GT button. This eschews recalculation of the values repeatedly.

Tax-mode application – The taxpayers and traders in the different markets calculate the base value of products by deducting tax from MRP. Hence, a tax feature for all the five tax slabs to calculate the base value from MRP is also added in the new calculators. Tax-mode has its application in calculating the base value and net profit earned.

Multi-industry use – The functionality of the GST+/tax- key makes MJ-120GST transcend industries as it can calculate values in multiple formats that include the gross value from the base value in GST+ mode and base value from the gross value in Tax- mode. In addition, the GST GT key is for calculating the gross value of a GST-based calculation and can it can also be used for calculating the grand total of a calculation.

XaTTaX: Cloud and On-Premises Based GST Filing Software For India

Source: International Business Times
New Goods & Services Tax regime will benefit brick & mortar shops: Crisil

New Goods & Services Tax regime will benefit brick & mortar shops: Crisil

Comments 0 Comment

brick & mortar shops

As online retailers start to go slow on discounts to reduce cash burn and the benefits from the implementation of the new Goods & Services Tax (GST) begin to accrue, physical retailers will stand to benefit, according to a research note published by credit ratings agency Crisil.

The agency expects the operating margins of organised brick & mortar (B&M) retailers to improve by 100 basis points (bps) from about six per cent over next two fiscals.

Store expansion

Further, the pace of store expansion is also expected to increase over the medium-term, along with increasing store productivity, to cater to rising demand. Despite this, Crisil expects the credit profiles of its rated B&M retailers to remain steady, driven by better operating metrics and adequate debt metrics.

The agency said that it has outstanding ratings on 86 B&M retailers including 27 large (more than ₹500 crore revenue), 22 mid-sized (₹100-500 crore revenue) and 37 small ones.

“India’s top three online retailers lost more than ₹30 crore per day – or ₹11,000 crore in fiscal 2016 – because of large-scale discounts and aggressive marketing. Besides, the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) regulation in March 2016, which restricts discounting and vendor concentration, has been favourable for B&M retailers. Consequently, online retailers have been gradually focussing on lowering share of discounts as well as losses, which has led to moderation in their growth,” the note added.

Under the new GST rules, physical stores will be able to set off service tax on rent against taxes on goods. With rent being one of their largest cost components, ranging between 5-6 per cent of sales, the retail sector stands to benefit. It will also gain from the rationalisation of logistics costs because of flexibility in procurement and seamless movement of goods facilitated by the implementation of GST.

Revenue growth to improve

Revenue growth of the organised B&M retail sector is expected to improve to 14-16 per cent annually in the next two fiscals compared with 13 per cent compounded annual growth rate seen between fiscals 2015 and 2017. As growth and profitability look up, Crisil said it expects capital expenditure of B&M retailers will increase by 15-20 per cent over the next two fiscals compared to capex incurred in the past two fiscals.

Anuj Sethi, Senior Director, Crisil Ratings, said in the note: “We see the profitability of B&M retailers improving as competitive intensity (from online rivals) moderates and service tax on rent gets set off in the GST regime.

“And as growth rises, so will revenue per square feet, which, in turn, will improve their fixed-cost absorption ability. That will provide at least 100 bps positive delta to operating margins for B&M retailers.”

Source : http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/new-goods-services-tax-regime-will-benefit-brick-mortar-retailers-crisil/article9716147.ece