'Compliance will improve': India Inc welcomes GST relief measures

India Inc on Friday welcomed the outcome of the GST Council meet and said the decisions will improve compliance and provide much needed relief to the taxpayers.

CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee said that the SME sector compliance will greatly improve as limit for composition scheme has been increased to Rs 1 crore. Now for SMEs with annual turnover of Rs 1.5 crore will be allowed to file quarterly returns, this will be a big relief to the small-scale players.

Banerjee further commented that deferment of Reverse Charge Mechanism (RCM) is welcome as it encourages registered taxpayers to continue sourcing from small and unregistered taxpayers.

The decision to bring down rate for AC restaurants to 12 per cent and reduction of tax slabs for around 60 items to 5 per cent from 12 per cent will help boost household spending and further economic growth, he said.

Banerjee also stated that raising of turnover for composition scheme from Rs 75 Lakh to Rs 1 crore and deferment of E-way bill provisions till April 2018 are indeed a big relief which will help trade and industry in getting adjusted to the GST compliance.

Regarding the e-wallet scheme for exporters and move to reimburse them within the next week, CII said this was a much needed step and would help exporters save costs of working capital.

Exporters body FIEO's president Ganesh Kumar Gupta said that these initiatives will address the problem of the exporters particularly micro and small segments.
"The refund of GST for the month of July by 10th October and August by 18th October will address the liquidity concerns of the exporters," he said.

Gupta also welcomed the decision to introduce e-wallet, mooted by FIEO, at the introduction of the GST which will provide a permanent solution to the liquidity problem of the export sector.

These are very pragmatic decisions which show the flexible approach of the government which will ameliorate the problem of export sector and will impart much needed competitiveness to exports, Gupta said.

The GST Council today made sweeping changes to give relief to small and medium businesses on filing and payment of taxes, eased rules for exporters and cut tax rates on more than two dozen items.

PTI