The Central Board of Excise and Customs has recently released 11 goods and services tax (GST) return forms for taxpayers to be uploaded every month. On an average, a taxpayer who has two registrations - one for the principal place of business, another for its branch - has to file 74 returns annually, once the GST is rolled out. This will escalate compliance costs for business units.
Even the taxpayer making only intrastate supplies and whose annual turnover is more than Rs 50 lakh will be required to file five GST returns in addition to tax returns, according to other applicable laws.
In such a situation, GST will be amenable only for big players and wash out the small trader who is not equipped to deal with online systems. Most of the returns such as GSTR-2, GSTR-3 and GSTR-9 depend on the data furnished in GSTR-1. This would lead to issues of mismatch and difficulties in reconciling the data.
The business unit could be at ease only when its entire supply chain - right from vendor to consumer - is reconciled, the chances of which happening are practically nil. Differences on account of depletion of stock, delay in payment, loss during transit, spoilage, etc are part and parcel of every business. This leads to discrepancies in bookkeeping of accounts. In such a case only the business units that have ERPs such as SAP can survive.
The GST Network (GSTN) should maintain on a real-time basis the liability, credit and cash ledger of each registration granted under the GST Act. The taxpayer can reconcile his tax liabilities from these ledgers and comply with the Act. But asking small traders, who are not even equipped with the latest technology, to remain updated with GSTN is unimaginable.
The government could appoint volunteers and train them to help small business units. GST canopies with trained staff should be set up at different spots where small businesses can easily approach them without hampering their daily business activities.
Setting up GST facilitation centres at various parts of the city will not serve the purpose - traders know the ramifications of losing a day's work for filing returns. If the government really wants to bring them on board, it should reach out to them, not the other way round. Small players should get a fair chance to remain in the competition.
Keshav R Garg, Chandigarh
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