India 1 Jul GST launch challenges

The Indian Goods and Services Council approved on 3 June the final stages of the implementation of GST for 1 July 2017.

It confirmed the last outstanding GST rates, and some transitional issues around stock in transit.

In terms of launch there remains a number of challenges, including:

• Despite consolidating many current indirect taxes, such as Service Tax and VAT, the new GST will require some manufacturers to complete many more returns: 3 per month plus 1 annual for each state
• All return are filed online which will be new to many small companies
• To reduce errors and fraud, each sales invoice has to be cross approved in the new GST system by the vendor’s customers.  Any differences must be reconciled and investigated prior to acceptance by the tax office
• Indian GST is made up of: Central GST; and State GST.  GST payers must split the tax collected on transactions and pay separately to the Centre and State(s) as appropriate
• Suppliers will need to locate their customers to determine which State GST is due
• Many popular software packages, including Tally, have still not complete their GST components

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