Taxi aggregators, ecommerce companies must register for GST

NEW DELHI: The government has come out with a 268-page document detailing taxations rules and procedures for various sectors including ecommerce players and taxi aggregators under goods and services tax (GST).

Complied in the form of frequently asked questions (FAQ), the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has — with over 500 questions — covered registration, valuation and payment, scope and time of supply, refunds, seizure and arrest and other issues. Rules say taxi aggregators such as Ola and Uber will have to register under GST regime and there will be no threshold exemption for them.

Ecommerce players such as Flipkart and Amazon will also need to register under GST regime irrespective of value of supply made by them. The industry has been demanding centralised registration and not with every state where a company has business.

FAQs are based on the Model GST Law and the situation could change if there is change in the basic law after deliberations with the states. It clarified that a company selling goods through its own website will not be considered as an ecommerce operator.

"A person providing information or any other services incidental to or in connection with such supply of goods and services through electronic platform would be considered as an operator. A person supplying goods/services on his own account, however, would not be considered as an operator," said the FAQs.

If tax evaded is over Rs 2.5 crore, penalty could extend up to five years of jail with a fine, three years if tax evaded is Rs 50 lakh-Rs 2.5 crore and one year if it is between Rs 25-50 lakh. Evasion of tax exceeding Rs 2.5 crore would be considered cognisable and non-bailable.

NO ISSUE WITH GSTN
On the issue of Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), the structure of which has been questioned in some quarters, including BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, the FAQ says it has been set up after due deliberations. “GSTN in its current form was created after approval of empowered committee of state finance ministers and the Union government after due deliberations over a long period of time.”

Centre and states together hold 49% equity in GSTN while the remaining 51% is held collectively by HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, NSE Strategic Investment Company (10% each) and LIC Housing Finance (11%).

FAQ said Infosys has been engaged as a "single managed service provider" for design development, deployment of GST system, including application software, tools, infrastructure, and maintain it for five years.