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The National Capital Region (NCR), one of the biggest markets in the country, spanning three states — Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh — typifies the challenges for  businesses that register under the composition levy scheme. Applicable to certain categories of small taxpayers — traders, restaurants, and manufacturers/ suppliers — whose annual turnover does not exceed Rs 75 lakh ( Rs 50 lakh for  certain states), the objective of the scheme is to make the new indirect tax regime simple with reduced compliance. The tax rates range from 1 per cent for traders, 2  per cent for manufacturers, and 5 per cent for restaurant services. Under the scheme the taxpayer is required to file one return in each quarter. However, attached to the scheme are riders that have stumped businesses. Any business that makes interstate supply is outside the ambit of the scheme. For instance,  small businesses operating in the NCR face the brunt of this condition because their supplies of...

The new indirect tax regime is having an effect akin to setting a cat among pigeons for micro and small businesses across the country. This is largely due to a  provision for collecting and paying tax on behalf of unregistered vendors and suppliers, under what is termed the reverse charge mechanism (RCM). A concept borrowed from the service tax, the RCM also now applies to supply of goods. However, higher compliance cost, including a larger working capital requirement,  is causing a shake-out in the procurement chain of businesses. The smaller ones, operating largely in the unorganised space, are losing. Consider: Large companies in  the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) space have started pruning their vendor list for sourcing products and services, weeding out small suppliers which are yet to  register under the goods and services tax (GST). The remaining ones — barely 10 per cent of their vendor universe — have been put on notice. In the textile hub of Tir...

The Centre has urged Jammu and Kashmir to implement the goods and services tax from July 1 to ensure that consumers and industry in the State are not put at a  disadvantage. In a letter to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that non-implementation of the new levy from July 1 will  have an “adverse impact” and lead to a general increase in the prices of goods that are purchased from other States as well as in the prices of all goods being sold  from Jammu and Kashmir. “GST is a destination-based tax… if the State of Jammu and Kashmir does not join GST on July 1, dealers shall not be able to take credit of the Integrated GST for all  purchases. This shall get embedded into the prices of purchased goods or services, leading to cascading of tax and increase in prices of the said goods or services for  the final consumers in Jammu and Kashmir,” Jaitley said, according to a release by the Finance Minis...

Businesses can start uploading their sale and purchase invoices generated post July 1 on the GSTN portal from July 24, a top company official said today. The Goods and Services Tax has kicked in from July 1 and so far, the GST Network, the company handling the IT backbone for new tax regime, has been facilitating registration of businesses. "We plan to launch the invoice upload utility on the portal on July 24 so that businesses can come forward and start uploading the invoices on a daily or weekly basis to avoid month-end rush," GSTN Chairman Navin Kumar told PTI. Generating invoices for dealings above Rs 200 and keeping invoice records in serial number even if maintained manually, are pre-requisites for claiming input tax credit under the GST regime. The GSTN had last month launched an offline Excel format for businesses to keep their invoice records and from July 24 this Excel sheet can be uploaded on the portal. Kumar said GSTN would put up a video on its portal to as...

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has made it easier for retail investors to move their money between shares and commodities, like gold and oil.The regulator last week issued an amendment to regulations that concern brokers and sub-brokers, allowing anyone registered to trade in shares to also trade in commodities, and vice-versa, without cumbersome paperwork, a second verification process, and through an alternate account. "In the future, if a customer wants to switch asset classes, it can be done on a single click without irritants of paperwork that may earlier have pushed the customer to stick to just a single asset class,” said Lalit Thakkar, director at Angel Broking. Large broking houses like Angel Broking, Edelweiss and Motilal Oswal have separate subsidiaries that trade in commodities. Each time an investor wants to move from shares to commodities, cheques and permissions to move money from one unit to another are required. For such firms, the effort ...

With less than a week to go for the new indirect tax regime to kick in, small businesses are trying to understand the modalities of the goods and services tax (GST) as the compliance burden for them is set to significantly rise. Making a relaxation for small businesses, rules allow those with an annual turnover between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 75 lakh (or up to Rs 50 lakh for hilly States) to opt for the composition scheme and file returns every quarter, the bigger challenges seems to be automating their systems and installing at least one computer for making and uploading invoices. “I run a small grocery store and though my turnover is over Rs 20 lakh, I don’t know whether to run my shop or work out the computer system,” said Mahender Nath, the owner of a mom-and pop store in New Delhi. Analysts say that the problem is bigger in tier 2 and 3 towns where connectivity and the use of computers is considered a big challenge. “I recently met a client from Siwan (Bihar) who has a cemen...

Some common mistakes made by businesses while filing invoices. Experts suggest the way forward MUST DO Ensure that different types of invoices (tax invoice, bill of supply, receipt voucher, refund voucher, self-invoice, payment voucher, debit note, credit note & delivery challan) have different consecutive serial numbers Such invoice numbers should not exceed 16 digits, including special characters such as / and - If advance received for service/goods is refunded later, assessee has to issue refund voucher. Tax paid earlier can be claimed by way of refund. However, no adjustments can be made in return Mention the place of supply carefully. Any default or incorrect determination of place of supply can lead to payment of tax at the wrong place. Assessee would then have to pay tax in the correct place and go for refund of tax paid erroneously Ensure that correct classification of goods and service is done. Any change of rate would have a huge impact on future cash flow...

A fortnight into the GST, small and medium dealers, and manufacturers are grappling with issues of the new indirect taxation regime. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will chair the 19th meeting of the GST Council on Monday, via video conference. This would be the first meeting after the implementation. The meeting would reportedly discuss tweaking of rates on some products, besides taking stock of the rollout of the new indirect tax system. The spread was 1.9 percentage point at the end of FY16 and 4.8 percentage points at beginning of the current rally in March 2013. The spread was 1.5 percentage point at the end of March 2008. The earnings yield is the potential yield for an equity investor if the company pays 100 per cent of its current (annual) net profit as equity dividend. Simply put, it is net profit divided by the market capitalisation of a company. Typically, the earnings yield on equities should be sufficiently higher than the yield on riskfree assets (such a...