Reportedly, the Central Government is considering re-opening of registration window for allowing small businesses to pay levies at a lower rate by foregoing the benefit of input tax credit under the Goods and Services Tax regime.
A proposal regarding this is likely to be tabled before the GST Council in its next meeting on September 9th. The last date to avail the scheme was August 16, and to open the scheme again for taxpayers will need an amendment to the composition rules.
The Composition Scheme enables the traders, manufacturers and restaurant owners with annual turnover up to Rs 75 lakh in the preceding financial year, to pay tax at 1 percent, 2 percent and 5 percent, respectively. However, the persons who avail the benefit of the said scheme claim for input tax credit.
For the taxpayers based in special category states like Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Himachal Pradesh annual turnover should be up to Rs 50 lakh to avail the composition scheme, according to a decision taken by the GST Council.
The government is planning to make the scheme available again for those small taxpayers who have registered but not availed the scheme, the official cited above said.
There are many taxpayers who are yet to successfully complete their registration process, and they will also get a chance to avail the composition scheme if it’s extended, he said.
Of the total 72.33 lakh taxpayers, 58.53 lakh have completely migrated to the GSTN and 13.8 lakh are yet to complete procedural formalities, the finance ministry had said while disclosing GST collections for July.
