BENGALURU: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and GST Council member Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday said Goods and Services Tax-2 will be introduced from October 1. A prototype will be launched on July 1 to make filing tax returns easier. Modi was speaking to the media after holding a discussion with GST council members.
Modi, who is also the chairman of the 11th Group of Ministers, took stock of the readiness of the system. He said GST-1 will complete two years on July 1 and the new system is being launched to make filing simple and to check tax evasion.
“When GST was designed, taxpayers had to file 36 returns, annual returns and auditory report. Now, under GST-2, big tax-payers will have to file 12 returns and small tax-payers only four a year. Infosys has been working with the Council on new technology and the deadline for implementing the new returns for small tax-payers will be January 1, 2020, and for big tax-payers, it will October 1, 2019,” he said.
He said that under GST-2, those who have zero returns will be able to file their returns by SMS service also. Sahaj, a new form is being developed for those whose turnover is less than Rs 5 crore per annum and in business-to-consumer trading. Sugama, another new form, is also being created for those who trade deals with consumers and businesses together.
Referring to online refunds, Sushil Modi said that to address the issue of exporters, the council has decided that there will be a single source refund system from the central GST. The council will do away with central and state GST and complete online refund will start from September 2019.
Also, apart from a penalty of Rs 25,000, defaulters will also have to pay 10% as additional penalty. The Anti-Profiteering Authority (APA), whose term has been extended by two years, has established total profiteering of Rs 606 crore and Rs 224 crore has been deposited in the consumer welfare fund so far, he pointed out.
To prevent tax evasion, the e-way bill has been introduced where a trader will have to enter to and fro destinations and PIN codes on the system which will auto-populate the distance and calculate tax. This system has been developed by Karnataka Commercial Taxes Department and NIC.
Also, e-invoicing is being introduced to check defaulters and those dealing in businesses of over Rs 50 crore will no longer have to file physical invoice.