Skip to main content

GST FAQs: E-tailers, taxi aggregators need to register

A day before the GST Council's first meeting, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) on Wednesday came out with an extensive clarifications detailing taxability of e-commerce players and taxi aggregators under the new setup.

The 268-page frequently asked questions (FAQ) booklet, released by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, answered 500 questions on 24 topics, including registration, valuation and payment, scope and time of supply, refunds, seizure and arrest.

It has also clarified that taxi aggregators, including Ola, will have to register under goods and services tax (GST) and there will be no threshold exemption for them.

Similarly, e-commerce players such as Flipkart and Amazon will have to seek registration under the GST regime, irrespective of the value of supply made by them.

It also clarified that companies, including Titan, which supply watches and jewels through their own websites, will not be considered as e-commerce operators.

“A person providing any information or any other services incidental to or in connection with such supply of goods and services through electronic platform would be considered as an operator. A person supplying goods/services on his own account, however, would not be considered as an operator,” said the FAQs, which are based on the Model GST law. Elaborating on the penal provisions, the FAQ booklet said penalty could extend up to five years of jail with a fine if the tax evaded is more than Rs 2.5 crore, three years if tax evaded is between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2.5 crore, and one year if it is Rs 25-50 lakh.

It further said all offences where the evasion of tax exceeds Rs 2.5 crore shall be cognizable and non-bailable.

Regarding Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), over which Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament Subramanian Swamy has expressed misgivings, the FAQ said: “GSTN in its current form was created after taking approval of the empowered committee of state finance ministers and the Union government after due deliberations over a long period of time.” 

Under the current structure, central and state governments will together hold 49 per cent equity in GSTN while the remaining 51 per cent is held collectively by HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, NSE Strategic Investment Company (10 per cent each), and LIC Housing Finance (11 per cent).

According to Swamy, the equity structure of GSTN is “anti-national”.

On role of Infosys in GSTN, it said the IT company has been engaged as a “single managed service provider” for design development, deployment of GST system, including application software, tools, infrastructure and to maintain it for five years.

Business Standard, New Delhi, 22 Septemeber 2016

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Data storage norm splits digital payments industry

Data storage norm splits digital payments industry  India’s nascent digital payment industry could be thrown into disarray due to the demand by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that all user data be stored within the country, fears an industry grouping, which has termed the decision as “heavy-handed”, even as others, including the country’s largest digital payment provider Paytm, have hailed the move.  In a bid to narrow the growing schism, the industry is planning to send a formal representation to the regulator highlighting its concerns, a top official told ET.  “We are trying to build a consensus on the issue," said the person adding that the representation to the central bank will be ready this week.  RBI on April 6, mandated all payment companies—global and local—to set up data storage facilities within India by October. The stringent six-month deadline has attracted the ire of several sections of the industry that fear it will lead to a disruption of wel...

Offer’s for all of you

Great Bumper Dhamaka Offer’s for all of you... It's Time to see your Business Online, WebeCreator Offer Website Designing with domain & Email @ nominal charges. For a year For More information visit us http://goo.gl/KlpppF call on 9890151261/9773197533  drop a mail to sales@webecreator.com

Sebi to finalise options in commodities today

The Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) will meet on Friday with senior officials of the latter, to give a final shape to the rules on options trading in commodity futures, beside revising the warehousing norms to ensure good delivery on settlement. The decision taken, after discussing with the advisory committee, will be placed before the regulator’s board, to finalise the regulations. According to knowledgeable sources, three commodities in each segment, agricultural and non- agricultural, have been proposed for introducing options. It appears commodities from the soya and guar segments are preferred in the former. From the non- agri segment, it is likely that gold, silver and crude oil will be finalised. All these These have better liquidity and both the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange and the Multi Commodity Exchange, respectively, will be able to introduce the options. In the equity segments, options ar...