GST Not Applicable on Firms with INR 25 Lakh Turnover: Revenue Secretary

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said on Thursday that the small businesses or traders with annual turnover of up to Rs 20-25 lakh will be exempted from Goods and Services Tax (GST), and the Centre and the states will agree on the same shortly.

Mr Adhia said on Finance Ministry’s YouTube channel that “There will be an exemption limit for small traders and the limit is likely to be fixed at Rs 25 lakh. The states and the Centre are now involved in an intense discussion on this. More or less, we have reached an understanding that the limit will be up to Rs 20-25 lakh.”

Mr Adhia further said that the traders holding total turnover below Rs 25 lakh will be exempted from filing GST.

States have already been demanding that GST must not be applied on businesses with annual turnover less than Rs 10 lakh. For special category and NE states, the same limit should be Rs 5 lakh. Presently, the threshold for VAT in most states is Rs 10 lakh.

Mr Adhia said GST will make the business easier than before and the compliance will be better as the tax evasion would get difficult. He also said that the incidence of tax on most products and commodities would come down from the present 30-32 percent.

Also a special 24X7 call centre will be formed in every state pertaining to resolve every query related to GST. The call centres will be also answering GSTN queries on the tax payments.

Mr Adhia said the filing of GST return will become easy as it will be completely done by a software which is simple. Besides, those traders which have excise, VAT registration or service tax will be automatically transferred to GST.

Mr Adhia said, “We hope to complete the discussion in GST Council within two months and then we will bring the CGST and IGST bills in Parliament… By February 2017, we hope to be ready completely,”

“Only one authority will get power to investigate. The power to issue notice with either be with the Centre or state government. So you will have only single authority to deal with.”