Goods and Services Tax

The pandemic of coronavirus is said to change the way people have been living their lives. It is true that once this crisis is over, everything around us will change forever. The huge disruption which Covid-19 has caused to industry will take a long time to recover. In most of the industry it is now being felt that FY 2020-21 will be drained with no or very low profits. Under these circumstances, role of financial consultants especially Chartered Accountants will become extremely crucial. But the virus will not only infect the industries but also the consultants. There would be a drastic change in the way consulting business had been carried out in the past. The spread of virus will change business preferences. The promoters would prefer to use virtual offices and remote assistance to meet their business needs. Business premises would be closely monitored ensuring that the virus doesn’t enter the factory gates. With scarce availability of skilled labour, crunch in finances, f...

Is Covid-19 pushing World economies into vicious cycle of recession [CA. Keshav R Garg] As a commerce student, I had studied about the vicious circle of poverty in my school times and to be honest, I could not understand it properly. As a young lad, I always felt how can a chain of events impact each other to an extent that the it comes back and effects the original event. Somehow our teachers taught us well and I proceeded ahead to become a Chartered Accountant. But now, being an integral part of the financial world, I can sense that what is happening these days might push the world economy into another vicious cycle of recession, recouping from which looks difficult in next 2-3 years. Every sector, be it manufacturing, services or trading has already entered into a phase of tremendous financial pressure. With future remaining absolutely uncertain, they are unable to plan things properly. Recently, Singapore opened its first lockdown after few days but then again th...

Practical examples and solutions to understand applicability of reduced interest under GST [CA. Keshav R Garg] There has been whole lot of discussions about how the applicability of reduced rate of interest and waiver of late fees shall work in case of taxpayers having turnover exceeding Rs. 5 crores. The Notification Nos 31/2020, 32/2020 and 33/2020 – Central Tax dated 03.04.2020 provides for lower interest, waive of late fees for GSTR 3B and waiver for late fees of GSTR 1 respectively. There had been various documents where these notifications has been misinterpreted and industry is assuming that due dates of filing of returns have been extended. It is not the due dates of the returns which have been extended rather late fees applicable on them has been waived off with a condition that if the returns are not filed as per dates specified by the government full late fees and interest shall be made applicable. We shall understand the complete issue by way of practical...