Everybody knows that on 1st of July, it is celebrated as Doctor’s day as well as Chartered Accountant’s day. But, since 2017, people in India would also remember it for the introduction of Goods & Service Tax (GST). GST was publicised as ‘one nation, one tax’ by the government, aimed to provide a simplified, single tax regime. Prior to the introduction of GST, direct and indirect taxes were present in India. Earlier, the Centre and the State used to collect tax separately. Even though import tax was levied on one individual, the burden was levied on another individual. In the cases of direct tax, the taxpayer must pay the tax. Before the enactment of GST in India, there were many indirect taxes that existed such as the Service tax, VAT, Excise, etc. So, after the enactment, all the indirect tax combined into the single tax regime with which the number of filing has decreased. GST law in India is a comprehensive tax levy on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and service at a national level under which no distinction is made between goods and services for levying of tax. GST was launched by the President of India, and the Government of India. The main objective of GST was to consolidate all indirect tax levies into a single tax, except customs replacing multiple tax levies, overcoming the limitations of existing indirect tax structure, and creating efficiencies in tax administration. Not only that, its basic objective was to remove cascading effect of the taxes. Cascading effect of taxes mean levy of tax on tax. GST helped in widening the tax base and brought large number of people into tax net. The launch happened at the midnight (30 June – 1 July) session. It was boycotted by the opposition due to the predicted problems that it was bound to lead for the middle and lower class Indian family. After its launch, the GST rates have been modified multiple times, the latest being on 22 December 2018, where a panel of federal and state finance ministers decided to revise GST rates on 28 goods and 53 services. There are four types of GST; Central Goods and Services Tax which is charged on the intra state supply of products and services State Goods and Services Tax which is charged on the sale of products or services within a state. Integrated Goods and Services Tax is charged on inter-state transactions of products and services. Union Territory Goods and Services Tax is levied on the supply of products and services in any of the Union Territories in the country, viz. Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep, and Chandigarh. UTGST is levied along with CGST. Any company that is eligible under GST must register itself in the GST portal created by the Government of India. Basically, after the registration of any business entity, the tax authority provides the Unique Identification number which includes the Permanent Account Number (PAN) and State-specific number. It is mandatory for all Service providers, buyers, and sellers to register. A business that makes a total income of Rs.20 lakhs and more in a financial year must be required to do GST registration. It takes 2-6 working days to process. A GST Certificate is an official document that is issued by the concerned authorities for a business that has been enrolled under the GST system. The GST registration certificate is issued in Form GST REG-06. A registered taxpayer can download the GST Certificate from the official GST Portal as it is not issued physically. GST Certificate contains GSTIN, Legal Name, Trade Name, Constitution of Business, Address, Date of liability, Period of Validity, Types of Registration, Particulars of Approving Authority, Signature, Details of the Approving GST officer, and Date of issue of a certificate. A 15-digit Unique Identification Number is provided to every taxpayer is called GST Identification Number (GSTIN). After the allotment of the Unique Identification Number, if a registered person wants to change the information given at the time of registration, then, in such a situation a registered person shall have to inform the proper office within fifteen days of receiving the unique identification number. After the submission of changes required, it depends upon the discretion of the proper officer that they approve it or reject it. The main uses of GSTIN are; Loans can be availed, Refunds can also be claimed, corrections can be easily made and the verification process is easy as well. The first two digits of the GST Identification Number (GSTIN) represent the State code and the next ten digits represent the Permanent Account Number (PAN) of the taxpayer. After that, the thirteenth digit of the Unique Identification Number denotes the number of registration within the state and the fourteenth digit is Z by default and the fifteenth digit is for check code. After the registration of GST, a person becomes legally recognized as a supplier of goods and services. The registered dealers must file their GST returns with details regarding their purchases, sales, input tax credit, and output GST. The GST Council has assigned GST rates to different goods and services. While some products come at 5% GST, 12% GST, 18% GST, and 28% GST, others can be purchased without any GST. Several aspects and factors must be taken into consideration while calculating the amount that needs to be paid when filing the return like ITC, exempted supplies, reverse charge. If a person fails to pay the entire GST amount, then, that person would be slapped with an 18% interest. In fact, the GST Calculator makes it simple for taxpayers to calculate the amount that needs to paid. A person needs to enter all the required details such as the month, the due date for filing returns, actual date on which the returns are filed, the tax liability for the month. It’s the time of technology. Now, everything has an App. In fact, there are many GST applications which have been designed to run on smartphones. But, CBEC GST is the only App which is Government-issued application. It can also be downloaded from Google Play Store. France was the first country to implement the GST in 1954; since then, an estimated 160 countries have adopted this tax system in some form or another. Some of the countries with a GST include Canada, Vietnam, Australia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Monaco, Spain, Italy, Nigeria, Brazil, South Korea, and India.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
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