Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime has been implemented in India with effect from 1st July 2017. With the new tax, many new concepts have been introduced such as – tax on the event ‘supply’ which includes simple transfer also; tax on transactions within the units of same entity; tax on supply of goods before the delivery of goods; notional value of supplies for taxation where no consideration is involved; wider availability of cross credits; credits becoming eligible after discharge of respective tax liability by the supplier; different tax positions in case of business to business supplies and business to customer supplies; requirement to maintain elaborate records and books of accounts; reverse charge mechanism in case of purchase from unregistered persons; anti profiteering clause;  severe penalty regime and so on.

The set of three major legislations, namely Central GST Act, State or Union Territory GST Act and Integrated GST Act along with the Rules there under constitutes broader law. The Notifications and Clarifications issued from time to time are setting tone for procedural aspects of the law. As the changes made by the GST regime are substantial, the industries, businesses, trade associations and professional institutions are consistently making representations before the GST Council and the Council is responding by way of tweaking the finer legislation wherever they feel important. GST Network as a platform for GST compliances is a facilitator but presently posing a struggle for the government as well as assessees given the system constraints and complexities of the law.

The action point for all of us is to understand the implications of the GST law for our respective businesses, set the compliance system, identify the pain points, if any, and work to resolve these by taking an appropriate approach. We at ARX Advisors are there to assist you in your efforts to align your business with GST regime.