FM pitches for GST rationalisation once a yr

New Delhi, Feb. 9: Continuing efforts to improve ease of doing business in India, the government will introduce an integrated electronic form for incorporating new companies from February 15, wherein EPFO and ESIC registration numbers will also be allotted at the same time.

The corporate affairs ministry would introduce the form — SPICe+ — to offer 10 services.

Currently, the ministry has the electronic form SPICe (Simplified Proforma for Incorporating Company Electronically) and that would be replaced with SPICe+.

The 10 services offered through the new form would help save many procedures, time and cost for starting a business in India, the ministry said in a public notice.

The labour ministry, the Department of Revenue in the finance ministry and the Maharashtra government would be offering certain services through the form.

Registration for EPFO (Employees' Provident Fund Organisation) and ESIC (Employees' State Insurance Corporation) would be mandatory for all new companies incorporated from February 15.

EPFO and ESIC registration numbers would not be separately issued by the respective agencies, the notice said.

Further, registration for profession tax would be compulsory for companies incorporated in

Maharashtra February 15.

Besides name reservation and incorporation of a company, EPFO and ESIC registration numbers would be issued.

Mandatory issuance of PAN (Permanent Account Number), TAN (Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number), Profession Tax Registration (Maharash-tra) and opening of bank account for the company concerned would be done through the form.

Director Identification Number (DIN) and GSTIN, if applied, would also be allotted.

GSTIN services number.

The corporate affairs ministry is implementing the Companies Act and all required filings under the law as well as incorporation of companies are made through its portal MCA21.

The new form would be available on this portal.

"All new companies incorporated through SPICe+... would also be mandatory required to apply for opening the company's bank account through the AGILE-PRO linked web form," the notice said.

There are more than 11.5 lakh active registered companies in the country and thousands of companies are getting incorporated every month. Generally, active companies are those which comply with all regulatory requirements, including timely submission of filings. from is the goods and tax identification

In an attempt to ease the GST-related uncertainties for India Inc, Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday, said that the Union government is planning to reduce the frequency of rate rationalisation to once a year from the existing every three months.

Ms Sitharaman, who met with top industrialists in the city, said: “We have discussed it in the GST Council. We literally proposed to the GST Council to consider a situation where we would do any rate rationlisation, increase or decrease, once a year alone and not every three months. We will do it because if the rate change happens in every three months, both business and government will remain uncertain.”

She went on: “In GST, when you have a certain level of rate, periodical change leads to a inversion problem like refund issues. Therefore, when suddenly one product’s rate of taxation is brought down, a whole lot of ripple effect is created. With the ripple effect, either refunds get affected or businesses cannot plan how much they have to keep aside for taxation in the whole year.”

She added: “Similarly, the government, both state and Central, is not able to make an assessment of what it will earn through GST yearly. So rate cuts or increases every three months, when the GST Council meets, are periodically bringing in a certain level of uncertainty. The businesses do not understand and they cannot (assess) how much it is going to hit them.”

“The government cannot make an assessment of how much revenue generation is going to happen in view of the constant change of rates every three months,” the finance minister said.

Ms Sitharaman, who urged all states to raise their concerns via their finance ministers at the GST Council, claimed that Budget has laid the foundation of India becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

She also rejected West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s complaint that her state had ben deprived in the Budget. Ms Sitharaman argued her focus was on the nation’s economic growth, and not on “which state got what”.