The affirmation by the GST Council that the rollout of GST will be from July 1, 2017 is most welcome and it is a relief. Downstream businesses have been planning inventory reduction to minimize the transitional impact and the deferment of the implementation date was not actually in the interest of the trade. The two months’ leeway for filing of return in GSTR-1 is welcome. Nevertheless, the common portal should be activated well before so that suppliers who are ready may proceed to file GSTR-1 itself instead of a summarized return in GSTR-3B. Even if the preparedness is short, trade and business will gain the experience of identifying the errors and carry-out system corrections. Now we move on to live implementation of GST. This will be an exciting phase of satisfaction and frustration in equal measure. Once the teething troubles are sorted out, GST will be the most modern indirect tax system in the world. A proud moment. 

July 1 implementation confirmation is along expected lines, relaxation for filing transaction wise details returns in July, August till September with interim aggregate return will provide relief to the industry and is very welcome. Key rules like anti-profiteering have been approved with a body set up in July, its critical to understand these rules. Statement that anti-profiteering will be more a deterrent needs to be followed in practice. Consensus on E way bill is still underway and statement that till then current system will continue makes one wonder whether the State check posts will continue. 

GST at the doorstep”- Relief outweighed excitement at the announcement of GST Council that GST will finally be rolled out on 1 July. The GST journey has been long and arduous and a new journey has just begun. The process of dismantling of multiple laws and arriving, whether by unanimity or consensus, at a single common legislative framework is a stupendous achievement. Without a doubt, there will be glitches and angst among those who feel excessively burdened either with tax incidence or compliance burden, but the general view is that GST is a better alternative to the complex era of indirect taxes.

The decision to defer the filing of returns by two months was not entirely unexpected given the state of readiness all around in terms of filing of GST returns. A simple return containing summary of inward and outward supplies will suffice as an interim measure. The Government will do well to publish the new format of return in Form GSTR 3B as the application service providers will need to get going in making the desired changes in their software armory.

Similarly the filing date for invoice wise details in regular GSTR 1 has been pushed forward to September although facility for uploading the outward supplies is expected to be available from 15 July itself. Waiver of late fees and penalties in the interim period would provide a sense of comfort to tax payers and give them time to adapt to the requirements of the new system.
The Government seems to be living up to its commitment to usher in the new era, but is the Trade and industry ready to implement it yet, only the next few days of hectic activity will tell. 

The 17th meeting of the GST council was held on 18 June 2017 where the council approved draft rules relating to advance rulings, appeals and revision, assessment, anti-profiteering and fund settlement. The Finance Minister mentioned that further deliberations are required to reach consensus on e-waybill rules. Till then, an alternate rule authorizing States to continue using existing systems for road permits shall be put in place. With removal of major road blocks on the pathway to implementation of GST, the deadline of July 1, 2017 appears to be an absolute reality.

The FM expressed confidence that GST laws from all pending states shall be in place by the end of next week. He further announced that the official launch of GST shall take place at midnight on 30 June 2017. This demeanour reflects the iron resolve of the Government to roll out GST on 1 July 2017.

The GST council has offered relaxation in the timelines for filing the invoice-wise details in GSTR1 for the months of July and August. Such details can be filed up to 5 September 2017 for July and 20 September 2017 for August. A summary statement of self-declared tax liability is required to be filed in Form 3B by August 20 for July and September 20 for August. This measure should significantly help in assuaging the concerns of inadequate readiness of GSTN being faced by the industry and confirms that preparedness of GSTN will not be a roadblock for the implementation of GST as was being anticipated by the industry.

Relief has been provided by the Council for luxury services of hotels and restaurants. The tariff limit for 28 percent slab-rate for hotels has been revised to INR 7500 as against the limit of INR 5000 set earlier. This should be welcome move for 5 star hotels having tariff rates up to INR 7500, which would now be required to pay GST @ 18% percent. Restaurants in 5 star hotels will now be taxed at 18 percent, in line with other AC restaurants as compared to 28 percent GST rate pegged for such hotels earlier. 

17th GST council meeting has given rest of any hope for deferment of GST beyond 1st July.

Relaxation of time for filing initial invoice wise returns is a welcome move which, to some extent, allays fears of readiness both from GSTN and industry's point of view. Similarly an additional time of around one month for obtaining new GST registration would provide relief to many businesses who are coming under the GST net, like those selling on E commerce platform.

While it's good to see that E way related provisions would be further discussed by the council before they are implemented, it remains to be seen as to whether the check posts at many state borders would continue to operate in the interim.

It has been reiterated that anti profiteering provisions are meant to be used as a deterrent and would be invoked only against specific complaints, which is also encouraging to see.

Hospitality industry gets a breather with five star restaurants getting parity with other AC restaurants at 18% GST and limit of Rs 5,000 moving up to Rs 7,500 for 28% rate.

GST paid on import of Ships would also be allowed as a credit to the shipping industry now, which would bring their cost down.

Clarity is still awaited on few issues such as treatment of transactions between J&K and other states and supplies made from excise free zones. With 12 days to go, task if now cut out for industry as well as the a government. 

GST Council has decided today what was expected viz. no deferment of rollout of GST, More time to file initial returns, Non implementation of E way bill from July 1, etc.

One creditable thing which needs appreciation is that decisions taken in all 17 meetings are on consensus approach and no voting has been done on any decision.

The other important thing is that the GST Council is amenable to change based on the representations of the Industries. It would be wrong to expect that GST Council would accept all the representations.

We are now in slog overs and the Companies should now provide highest priority to GST project. Four things that we advise companies to take care at this stage 1) Plan for the activities which enable business as usual on July 1 i.e. raising of invoice, 2) IT Preparedness, 3) Transitional issues have been address and taken care of as required under GST law, 4) GST awareness program across all stakeholders