GST council has yesterday cleared all the bills required to implement the GST. Finance minister wants to kick-start from July 1 2017. This can be easily achieved is the model laws can be enacted in the current session of parliament. The GST is therefore set become a reality from the second quarter of the current financial year.
GST is going to catalyze greater IT adoption. We can see the business going digital in future and a Digital India emerging.
Apart from receiving GST as a catalyst for Software product industry growth, we also need to get prepared for adopting GST our selves. Not everyone has prepared for GST though. At iSPIRT we are starting discussion group on GST so that community can take advantage from shared learning. This blog is the first in series of this effort.
Few fundamental changes in the Goods and Service tax (GST) as it is called are
- It is supply based and not sales based tax system
- Being an indirect tax, it applies where the consumption happens
- There are three statues and taxes that are part of GST i.e. SGST (state GST), CGST (Center GST) and IGST (integrated GST = SGST+CGST)
- Both state and center will get tax on Goods and services supplied unlike earlier only Center received the service tax
- The GST subsumes many of the indirect taxes prevalent at present
GST will significantly change the way of doing business. Also, it is bound to greatly impact the international trade regime e.g. excise duty will merge in GST and deemed exports benefits under excise laws may come to an end. The exports aspect will impact Software exporters, irrespective of whether they are operating under SEZ, STP, EOU, EPCG or outside as these export schemes. GST on Import is going to impact every one, as in globalized world with cloud penetration, everyone is bound to use goods and services imported.
In this blog we cover in brief the application of GST on the import and export of goods and services.
How it impacts Import?
Basic custom duty (BCD) is not covered under GST and it will remain same. There will be two components on each import to be paid i.e. Basic Duty + IGST.
IGST will subsume currently applicable countervailing duty (CVD) and additional duty of customs (SAD).
Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) means tax levied under this Act on the supply of any goods/services in the course of inter State trade or commerce. IGST has two components SGST and CGST. A supply of goods/services in the course of Import into the territory of India shall also be deemed to be a supply of goods/services in the course of inter-state trade or commerce.
The levy of IGST will be payable for each transaction, as against the monthly payment in case of IGST payable on domestic interstate transactions.
The other difference in GST is aboput IGST computation. The IGST will be computed on transaction value of imported goods plus duties and taxes etc. charged under any statute other than the GST Law. Hence, ISGT will be applied on total landed value, basic customs duty and any other charges.
On import of services GST will be based on reverse charge method just as the Service tax is today i.e. IGST will apply on reverse charge mechanism. Hence, all Software or a SaaS bought online will be subject to reverse charge basis IGST.
But there is a input credit allowed in ISGT on imports. The service provider, trader or manufacturer of imported goods/services shall be eligible to offset IGST paid on import of goods/services against his output liability. The same does not apply to BCD as BCD is not part of GST.
Although it does not apply to Software sector, the anti-dumping duties and safeguard duties will continue to be applied as they were and have not been subsumed in the IGST.
Impact on exports
Exports under GST will be Zero rated i.e. there will not be any exports duty except on items that enjoy an export duty levy currently. Software exports will be zero rated.
The biggest impact will be on units presently enjoying exemptions on inputs like service tax in SEZ. Under GST all duties and taxes will be payable at the time of a transaction when procuring input goods/service and the exporter can get refund for these after exporting. Exemptions will be replaced by refunds after exports.
This will put lot of burden on arranging working capital for the inputs. This burden will be higher for manufacturing firms than services firms.
On pursuance of commerce ministry, in a recent announcement, the finance ministry has agreed to relax the refund pains. The finance ministry has agreed to refund 90% of the duties paid by exporters within a period of seven days under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. If duty refunds could not be made within seven days, then government will pay interest to exporters. However, it is yet to be decided how much interest will be paid to exporters in such a scenario, as per announcement. (Source: livemint news item)
The remaining 10% refund will be made after verification by tax authorities.
This is a bit of relief to exporters. Compliance process will change from presently exemption based compliance to a refund claim filing in time. The crux here is to use digital technology to automate many of these issues in GSTN.
Whereas these announcements have been made, the details will depend upon how rules are notified.
GST will undoubtedly make the efficient in long run. However, the next one year will be full of challenges and adjustments by Ministry of finance to oversee a smooth rollout.
Should you have further questions on GST, please write to sudhir@inspirt.in
