Biz under composition scheme to soon start filing GST returns

NEW DELHI: Businesses which opted for composition scheme in the July-september quarter will get to file their maiden GST returns soon.

Around 15 lakh businesses opted for composition scheme, which allows them to pay taxes at a concessional rate and makes compliance easy, till September under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) that rolled out from July 1.

"We are ready with GSTR-4 which will be used by composition scheme businesses for filing returns. The utility will be available on GSTN portal soon," GST Network CEO Prakash Kumar said.

As per the GST laws, for July-september quarter businesses, with turnover of up to Rs 75 lakh, opting for composition scheme can file quarterly returns and pay taxes.

The scheme is optional under which manufacturers other than those of ice cream, pan masala and tobacco products have to pay a 2 per cent tax on their annual turnover.

The tax rate is 5 per cent for restaurant services and 1 per cent for traders.

There are over 1 crore registered businesses under the GST, which has amalgamated over a dozen taxes to make India a single market for seamless flow of goods and services.

The GST Council had earlier this month raised the turnover threshold from Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1 crore for businesses to opt for the scheme.

Hence, those with turnover of up to Rs 1 crore can take advantage of composition scheme beginning October 1.

Also, a group of state finance ministers have been set up to make the scheme more attractive. The objective behind the composition scheme is to bring simplicity and reduce the compliance cost for small taxpayers. NEW DELHI: To make the biggest technology backbone for tax filing more convenient, GST Network (GSTN) has started conducting surveys by calling up taxpayers enquiring about their experience on the portal.

GSTN Chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey said about 500 calls a day are made from a full fledged call centre seeking feedback from businesses which have filed returns. "In the GST system, we constantly keep on collecting feedback from the public. We also do survey everyday and proactively call business which have filed returns. We ask for their experience and where they had difficulty," Pandey said.

GSTN, the company building the IT backbone for the biggest indirect tax reform, had in June opened a call centre and publicised the helpline number for taxpayers with enrolment related queries.

Some staffers from this centre have been assigned to get feedback of taxpayers who are filing returns and paying taxes on the portal.