To reduce the burden of tax compliance on manufacturing and services sector, The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has welcomed the recent decision announced by the GST Council for bringing in number of reforms in GST law for promoting ease of doing business.
The CITI Chairman Sanjay K Jain applauded finance minister Arun Jaitley and the GST Council for taking such decision that would help especially small businesses who have been facing a number of compliance issues in e-filing post new tax regime.
He also greeted the decision of the GST Council to allow big and small businesses to file their GST return by March 2018 thus, minimizing the compliance burden on tax payers. For companies which have not been able to file their GSTR 3B for the month of July, August and September 2017, the government has exempted such companies from submitting late fee and the companies that have already submitted late fee will get reimbursement. In the cases where companies had to file NIL return from October 2017 onwards, government will only charge Rs 20 per day as penalty instead of Rs 200 per day, as decided earlier.
The increment in the Composition Scheme from Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.5 crore is a welcome move appreciated by him and it will help the government bring in more units within the scope of a special tax payment window for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). He also welcomed the decision of uniform tax rate of one per cent for both traders and manufacturers.
Further, he hoped that the GST members will soon address the unsolved issues of the textile sector by reducing GST rate on man-made fibre (MMF) from 18 per cent to 12 per cent and by refunding accumulated input tax credit (ITC) at fabric stage.
Jain after the announcement made by the Council said, “Giving tax relief on more than 200 items – across all sectors – under various tax slabs is a commendable move and will boost not only the manufacturing sector but also give immense relief to the end users of the products. This decision will create positive vibes in the economy and help fresh flow of FDIs in manufacturing sectors, improve employment opportunities in labor intensive units, and share of textiles and other products in the world market.”
Furthermore he felt,” The Council should also reduce GST rate on 100 per cent Cotton Dot Coated Interlining Fabric (and similar other low value-added fabric) from 12 per cent to 5 per cent which at present attracts 12 per cent GST rate merely because it is dot coated with 25-30 GSM of HDPE or LDPE powder, adding about Rs 6.00/metre (Incl. profit). Without dot coated the same fabric attracts only 5 per cent GST rate.”
– Apparel and Textile News, Apparel Talk, Indian Apparel
