The Finance Ministry on Monday announced a GST tax exemption for businesses with an annual turnover of ₹ 40 lakhs and those who make a turnover of up to ₹1.5 crore can opt to pay 1% of the tax under the composition scheme. The ministry also added the process had been fully automated, and the assessee base is now over ₹ 1.24 crore with over 1.31 crore e-bills generated so far.
Out of the 230 items in the 28% GST slab, 200 of them have been shifted to low slabs. The 28% GST slab is still reserved for ‘sin and luxury’ items.
“The taxpayer base has almost doubled since the rollout of GST. The numbers of assessee covered by the GST at the time of its inception were about 65 lakh. Now the assessee base exceeds 1.24 crore. All processes in GST have been fully automated,” the Ministry of Finance said in a statement, adding that 50 crore returns have been filed online and 131 crores e-way bill generated so far.
The ministry has relieved the construction sector considerably, with the housing sector now getting an impetus after being placed in the 5% GST rate. Businesses can obtain GST registration within three days after the due submission and authentication of their Aadhar numbers with effect from August 21st, 2020. In case the Aadhar number is not provided, the registration will be approved only after the due physical verification of the address of the business.