Delay Swachh cess levy in certain sectors till Dec 1: Assocham

Government should postpone levy of Swachh Bharat cess on services offered by sectors like telecom, banking and airline by 15 days in view of procedural difficulties, industry chamber Assocham said today.
"The point of taxation for the levy of this cess for sectors like telecom, banking, airlines and similar sectors should be notified as from December 1, 2015," Assocham said in a letter to Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia.
Alternatively, it suggested that these sectors should be permitted to recover the due from November 15-30 in the next month together with the subsequent month's billing.
The government had proposed to levy Swachh Bharat cess at the rate of 0.50 per cent with effect from November 15.

"The lead time allowed to the tax payers to implement this by changing the computer system for billing and recovery from customers is inadequate and will cause hardship in some sectors," Assocham said.
Giving example, the chamber said in case of telecom companies who have already issued pre-paid cards, the recovery of tax from their customers will be difficult.

Some other service sectors having large number of retail customers such as airlines, financial services sectors will also find it difficult to implement changes at such a short notice in their computer system for billing.
Time given for implementation of the levy is "too short" and also there were intervening holidays, it said, adding that the recommendation were aimed at easing doing business in India.

The decision to impose 0.5 per cent cess will translate into a tax of 50 paise only on every Rs 100 worth of taxable services.
Swachh Bharat is among the major initiatives of the Modi government, which has embarked on a major drive to ensure cleanliness across the country.