Know the facts and the myths around GST!
What's the story
GST is the biggest tax reform in India's history, and businesses across all sectors will take some time to get used to it. False rumors and speculations during transition can be catastrophic. Revenue Secretary Dr. Hasmukh Adhia with tweets tried to dispel those falsehoods. The Centre is also deploying 200 officials to educate people on GST and counter false propaganda. Here's all about it.
Myths
Internet is not needed all the time
There is no need to generate all invoices on computer/Internet. If the business wants, it can generate manual invoices too. One doesn't need Internet 24*7 internet connectivity for GST, it is only required while filing the monthly return. Don't wait for your final ID to do business, your provisional ID is going to be your final GSTIN number.
Business
Don't halt your businesses unnecessarily
Businesses whose items of trade were earlier exempted and are now taxable should not cease their activities till they get a new registration. They have a window of 30 days to register while conducting business. Every small dealer doesn't need to file invoice wise details in their returns. Those in retail business (B2C) only need to file the summary of total sales.
GST
You are not paying a huge extra amount!
Businesses are not filing three returns per month but one return in three parts. Dealers will only have to file the first part and the other two will get auto-populated by the computer. GST rates are not higher. It only appears so, because excise duty and other taxes, which were earlier unnoticed, have now been subsumed in GST and are now visible.
Officials
Government is actively countering GST misinformation
The finance ministry has deployed 200 top officials to ensure that misinformation about GST doesn't spread among businesses and consumers. These officials are reviewing articles, op-eds and popular social media forwards related to GST and are responding to them with correct information. An official told ET that the center has identified 9 major misleading points and is actively countering them in its training sessions.