Traders' body welcomes GST threshold of Rs 20 lakh

CAIT said the move will also save the government from huge amount of administrative efforts and allow them to focus on widening the tax base

The Confederation of All India Traders' (CAIT) on Friday hailed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council's move to fix annual turnover limit for exemption at Rs 20 lakh.

"It will take away large number of very small traders from the ambit of GST whose cost of compliance is much more than the cost of their livelihood earning," CAIT National President B C Bhartia and its Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said in a joint statement.

The traders' body said the move will also save the government from huge amount of administrative efforts and allow them to focus on widening the tax base.

Aiming to expedite the rollout of the new indirect tax regime from April 1, the GST Council on Friday fixed an annual turnover limit for exemption at Rs 20 lakh and resolved that all cesses will be subsumed in the GST.

While the next meeting of the Council on September 30 will finalise draft rules on granting exemptions, the GST rate and tax slabs would be decided at its three-day meeting beginning October 17.

"We are eagerly looking at the finalisation of tax rates and other proposed provisions of GST. However, CAIT will urge the government to opt for avoiding any dual control of authorities as it will result into confusion among the traders," the traders' body said.

Regarding issues pertaining to dual control over small traders, it has been decided that states will have exclusive control over all dealers up to a revenue threshold of Rs 1.5 crore in a year.

While a mechanism would be worked out for traders above Rs 1.5 crore to ensure that a dealer is regulated either by the Central government or the state government and not both.