Next GST Council meet may liberlise rules, revamp filing process

In an attempt to make Goods and Services Tax compliance easier for taxpayers and boost government revenues, federal indirect tax body Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is likely to revamp the return filing process and liberalise the rules, said a report. 

Citing a person familiar with the development, the LiveMint report said that central and state government officials' meeting in the capital on February 27 will give final shape to the proposal before the council takes it up on March 1 for approval. 

The 26th meeting of the council, held through a video conference, is expected to take measures that will make compliance easier for small businesses and traders, said the report.

It may be noted that small businesses and traders account for the majority of taxpayers. The measures to be taken are reportedly based on recommendations from a panel led by M. Vinod Kumar, GST chief commissioner for Karnataka.

The meeting is also expected to do away with the requirement of filing tax returns relating to purchases and a comprehensive return on all transactions, rather, it will retain only the summary return to be filed every month (GST return 3 B), the information on which will be complemented by invoices of sales uploaded, said the report.

As small and medium enterprises and traders account for a large number of jobs in India, especially in rural areas, and form a politically significant constituency, the government would not like to antagonize them.

According to data available with the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises, there are as many as 36 million such enterprises in the country, half of them in rural areas, employing over 80 million people and accounting for a third of manufacturing output, the report said.

The report citing the official said that businesses will be given a transition period of about six to seven months to migrate to the new return filing system.

Meanwhile, the GST Council will reportedly have separate deadlines for small and medium enterprises, or SMEs, and large businesses. 

With the current deadline of the 20th of every month for filing returns and paying taxes for sales in the previous month, the government is facing a delay of more than a fortnight in getting tax payments. 

The idea is to let large businesses pay taxes by the 7th or 8th every month and let SMEs continue with the current deadline, the report added.

It may be noted that glitches in the GSTN portal, cumbersome procedures and documentation as well as the cost of compliance are major areas of concern that need to be addressed to make the Goods and Services Tax (GST) a success.

A Ficci survey has said, "Problems like delayed reflection of updated data as well as payments, delays in process of input credit set offs, inability to upload heavy files of certain formats and lack of provision to modify or revise errors posed major challenges to businesses."