GST Countdown: Small Businesses Are Still Clueless About Rates

With only 18 days to go for the GST tax to go live, small businesses are still struggling with complex concepts.

With just 18 days to go for the Goods and Services tax (GST) to go live, small businesses are struggling not just with complex concepts such as input tax credit, transition stock, and valuation but even something as basic as the rates applicable to goods they consume.

On BloombergQuint’s special series, GST Countdown, Ganesh of Shrinathji’s and Biraj of ‘Booze On Moods’ – managers at two restaurants in the Lower Parel area of Mumbai – asked Gagan Rai, managing director and chief executive officer, NSDL e-Governance, the technology changes they will have to undertake to be GST ready.

National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) is one of the 34 approved GST Suvidha Providers and an Application Service Provider as well.

Here are the edited excerpts from the conversation.

We’ve not got any training regarding GST. How will the invoice be generated?

I think businesses should consult with their tax consultants. They should know that they don’t have to file all the return forms on Day 1; they have to first file their sales, then match it with the purchases and then upload the return.

Once their supplier has uploaded the sales and they have uploaded their purchase, if after that there is some discrepancy, they will have to go back and consult their supplier on quantity and the tax paid. They will have to explain it to them that they are not getting the input tax credit because the supplier has not uploaded the invoice; a purchase for them is a sale for someone else. They will have to sort out the mismatch.

Do all bills need to be computerised? Will there be no manual billing?

You will have to put it in some computer; you won’t be able to upload it otherwise. You can have a manual billing but to prepare a return, you will have to digitise it. We are providing an offline utility that you can use at your establishment to upload invoices; you don’t need to go to a facilitation centre.

What is the percentage of GST that will be charged?

That depends on the items that you use; there are so many items, each will have a different rate.

(The article was first published on BloombergQuint)

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