29th GST Council meeting in New Delhi today to discuss MSME Sector's Issue

29th GST Council meeting in New Delhi today to discuss MSME Sector:Finance MinisterPiyush Goyal will chair the 29th Goods and Services Tax (GST) councilmeeting at Vigyan Bhawan on Saturday.The meetingis expected to focus on thetaxation-related grievances faced by the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Some of the key issues likely to be discussed during the meeting have been summarized below: The meeting is likely to focus on simplification of policy, streamlining compliance, thereby reducing the burden and any technology-related issues that are impacting the MSME sector. Issues likely to be taken up include:

• One of the key principles for the introduction of GST was the principle of One Nation, One Tax. Keeping the said principle in hindsight, there is a warranted demand from the MSME sector that a one-time settlement scheme (for assessment and arrears) be introduced to settle the legacy issues/ disputes from the earlier tax regime (VAT, Excise etc). The MSME sector beliefs that this move, if introduced, would go a long way in easing out the litigations and help them to channelize their energy and resource in business operations.
• There is overall demand to introduce the option to revise the return which will help in reducing the compliance burden.
• There is also a demand to increase the limit of e-waybill from the present Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 100,000 which would be another welcome move that will ease the compliance burden.
• Since GST is PAN based, only one registration is allowed under a PAN. Thus, small traders who operate using multiple firms which are registered in the name of one person are finding it very challenging to run the business. Thus, they are expecting that GST should allow registration of multiple trade names under one PAN.

In the earlier Council meeting, relief for small taxpayers and MSMEs came in the form of increase in threshold limit for filing Quarterly Returns. Companies with turnover of up to Rs 5 crore can now file GST returns quarterly. This was hiked from Rs 1.5 crore. You May Also Like:

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