CA Online

GSTR1 filing nosedives after deadline extension The pace of filing goods and services tax (GST) returns under sales, or GSTR1, nosedived on Saturday  evening, when the Council in the meeting in Hyderabad decided to give businesses another month till  October 10 to do so. About less than half the expected returns in July had been filed by the earlier deadline of Sunday. The traffic on the GST Network (GSTN) portal on Saturday declined significantly from 80,000 users an  hour to just 17,000 after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the extension. As of Tuesday, about 2.8 million GSTR1 returns were filed. This is out the 5.95 million registered taxpayers July. “The pace of filing was robust till announcement of the extension. It wasasteep decline from that hour. This speaksalot about the mentality to defer things till the last  day,” saidagovernment official. The deadline for filing purchase return, or GSTR2 and GSTR3, which is match of GSTR1 and GSTR2 for  Jul

Filing a case againstan e-tailer becomes easier The Supreme Court has recently upheld cases can be filed from the place of booking rather than the  registered office of the company While there has been a phenomenal rise in e-commerce, redressal of complaints was always been a sore  area. For example, earlier, if an individual had made a purchase from Delhi and was unhappy with the  product or service, the case could only be filed in the city where the company’s registered office was  situated, say Bengaluru. Things have become a lot simpler. The Supreme Court recently upheld the National Consumer Disputes  Redressal Commission’s (NCDRC’s) order, which clarified from where an individual could file a  complaint against an e-commerce company. A consumer can file a complaint in the city where he made the  transaction or at the forum where the office of the company is located, according to the NCDRC’s and  state forum's orders. “We have been asking consumer fora to consider th

Govt notifies GST cess hike on midsize and large cars, SUVs The Centre has notifiedalevy of increased goods and services tax (GST) cess of up to 7 per cent on  midsize, large and sport utility vehicles (SUVs). The GST Council on September 9 had decided to hike  cess on midsize cars by 2 per cent, on large cars by 5 per cent, and on SUVs by 7 per cent to bring  tax rates on these cars at preGST levels. The finance ministry on Monday notified the hike in amount of cess to be levied on cars, following  which the new rates came into effect. The effective GST rate on midsize cars will be 45 per cent, and on large cars, it would be 48 per  cent. The rate will be 50 per cent on SUVs, which include cars with length exceeding 4,000 mm and  having a ground clearance of 170 mm and above. The Business Standard, New delhi, 13th September 2017

Cabinet clears Bill to double tax free gratuity to Rs 20 lakh In a move that will bring a cheer to private and public sector employees in the country, the government has decided to double the upper limit of taxfree gratuity payable  to an employee to Rs 20 lakh. The Cabinet on Tuesday approved the introduction of the Payment of Gratu ty (Amendment) Bill, 2017, in Parliament. It also increased dearness allowance and dearness relief by one percentage point to 5 per cent, benefiting five million employees and 6.1 million pensioners. Apart from private sector employees, the amendment to the Gratuity Act, 1972, is also expected to increase the limit of gratuity of employees in public sector  undertakings and autonomous government organisations not covered under CCS (Pension) Rules, and bring it at par with central government employees. Under the Gratuity Act, payment is mandatory and gratuity will be payable to an employee on termination of employment after he or she has rendere

Over 100,000 shell firm directors disqualified In a fresh crackdown, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs directors for their association comes just a few  days after around 200,000 shell companies identified for disqualification only be debarred from their  but also from other companies years  that more directors are under Last Wednesday, the ministry saidadecision had been taken blacklist  300,000 directors of ministry has said action would taken against some members of Chartered  Accountants of of Company Secretaries of associations involved with These institutions have are being  monitored. Asource at ICAI told Business Standard that the association has identified 26 CAs and is gathering  more evidence against them. However, ICSI sources said there was no company secretary involved with shell companies, though some  of them were linked to financial defaults. "The ministry has identified 1,06,578 directors for disqualification under Section 164(2)(a) of the  Companies Ac

Income-tax department calls big corporate entities to pay advance taxes The income-tax (I-T) department is “coaxing" top corporate entities to make the 45 per cent of the  total advance tax payment by September 15, the due date for the second instalment. Sources said tax officials were meeting executives of the top 45-50 advance tax-paying firms to  persuade them to make the payment of 45 per cent of the full-year’s advance tax. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in a recent meeting directed income-tax commissioners to pull  up their socks on revenue collection. The CBDT has set an October deadline for achieving the desired  growth rate of tax collection. Citing the June quarter’s advance tax collections, officials said advance tax and tax deducted at  source (TDS) payments were significantly lower than in the same period a year ago. Officials refused  to disclose the advance tax outgo but hinted that it was in single digits. The tax department conducted “outreac

Confusion over branded food GST The GST Council's statement over the weekend on applying tax on branded food items has left most of the trade confused. Even though the Council has not changed the rates on food -0 per cent on unbranded stuff and 5 per cent on brands -many small traders who didn't levy GST earlier said they could come under the 5 per cent slab after the clarification. While they predicted some increase in consumer prices, large players said they can absorb GST in many ways and keep prices steady. "Trade is confused and hence on behalf of our chamber, we have asked our members to go ahead and charge 5 per cent GST," said Sushil Sureka, general secretary of the Ahilya Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Indore. The statement clarifying the application of GST came after some businesses were found deregistering their brands and selling under corporate brand name without paying tax, after the Council exempted unbranded food from the new all-encompassing