The Union government has shown strong determination in implementing a Goods and Services Tax (GST) that will subsume a majority of the present indirect tax levies in India. This paradigm shift in indirect tax is currently underway and the final GST law is expected to be implemented starting 1 July 2017. As part of this change, every taxpayer or assessee registered under the present indirect tax levies and who meets the criteria laid down in the Model GST Law, is required to register under GST.
The registration process involves migration to the GST portal in a phased manner. The process of GST migration for state value added tax (VAT) assessees began in November 2016 and was extended to cover excise and service tax assessees starting January 2017.
Some questions and answers to it:
Q) Who is required to register under the GST regime?
Persons required to register under GST can be broadly classified into 3 categories:
(a) Persons having a valid PAN (permanent account number issued for tax purposes) and existing registration under present Indirect tax laws (VAT, service tax or central excise).
(b) Persons crossing threshold limit of turnover of GST or desirous to obtain voluntary registration under GST.
(c) Registration for certain key compliance/specified assessees such as causal traders, persons liable to TDS (tax deducted at source), non-resident persons, etc.
Q) What is GST migration?
GST migration means enrolment of existing Indirect tax assessees (i.e. assessees holding registrations under VAT, service tax or central excise) using the GST portal, in order to transfer such assessee to the GST regime.
Q) What is enrolment?
Enrolment under GST means validating the data of existing taxpayers and filling up the remaining key information fields on the GST portal. In other words, the GST portal requires assessees holding existing registrations under the present indirect tax regime to validate their data as displayed on the GST portal and upload supporting information.
Q) What is last date for enrolment for existing assessees?
As per a notification on the CBEC website, existing assessees have been urged to enrol using the GST website on or before 31 March 2017.
Q) How are existing assesses enrolling on the GST portal?
Assessees have to obtain a provisional identification and password from the state VAT website or ACES website (as the case may be) and use them to access the GST portal. Having accessed or logged into the GST portal the assessee will be required to create a new user ID and password. The assessee can obtain a provisional GST registration number once the new user ID has been created. Subsequently, the assessee is required to upload prescribed information such as proof of constitution of business, director details, etc. on the portal to generate an Application Reference Number (ARN) to complete the application for migration.
Q) What is the provisional ID and provisional GST number?
The provisional ID is a temporary ID provided by current indirect tax authorities to enable existing assessees to access the GST portal for the first time. The provisional GST number is the GST number allotted to the assessee, which will be finalised once the application is processed by the department.
Q) How many provisional IDs shall be granted in case of multiple central excise/service tax registrations on the same PAN in a state?
According to guidance issued by the CBEC, only one provisional ID shall be issued by the central indirect tax authority to assessees holding a valid PAN and not having a provisional ID issued by any state VAT authority.
Source: Yahoo news.