GST Registration Online: A Momentary Relief for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

by Thea Lewis Blogger

Since the Goods and Services made the most disastrous impact on the MSMEs of the nation, the government has decided to compensate them. A breather has been allotted to these businesses by the Reserve Bank of India for the loan-repayment processes. The major bummer that occurred to these businesses was the interruption of cash flow due to the implementation of GST.

The government has decided to provide a window of 180 days in which the liable businesses could repay the loan. Under this tenure, neither the business nor its asset classification will be downgraded. Although as per the current scenario of the nation the government gives the tag of a non-performing asset to the loan account of the businesses. However, the MSMEs hold accountability themselves for getting the relief from the government. They produced in front of the government the consequences of GST implementation and how it affected their cash inflow.

The formalization due to GST registration online

Although, the recovery rate for the MSMEs was expected by the government to be low, the sudden advent of GST software brought momentum. The Goods and Services Tax is destination based and thus requires a perfect structure to be adopted or followed. It revolves around the process of finding appropriate destination codes for every sale/purchase invoice a business makes. Moreover, the digital businesses are more troubled with GST. The entire structure of the digital community that has boosted heavily in the past decade is completely different as that of the normal businesses. Whilst most of them come under MSMEs only, they have managed to comply with GST.

Here’s how the software helped MSMEs achieve the recovery goals:

GST compliance

The software made the overall compliance of the regime simple and quick. Previously these businesses were wandering with double loads of GST as well the repayment of the loan. But as soon as these businesses mingled their taxation mechanism to the software, the tasks like GST registration online, return filing, and tax calculation started becoming streamlined. Otherwise, these businesses would have still swung to and fro finding the easy way to comply with the regime.

Cost and time reduction

When GST hit the market, the businesses already under debt worried heavily. Those businesses were trying to take financial advice and assistance that cost them the most. And due to the increased demand of the taxation services, the CAs also started charging high even for small tasks like registration. On the other hand, the assistance of the software worked as a catalyst for these businesses. Not only the services were made available at low costs but also it took less time as compared to the other means of the taxation processes.

Online GST registration

As per the latest records, the majority of registrants under the Goods and Services Tax are the small and medium businesses. The big players in the market only account for the 10% of the total registrants. The government sees the new taxation regime with the spectacles of sovereignty and equality. Thus it easily feels cheated with inappropriate tax revenues. But the government would have to understand that the taxation is not fully evolved yet and even the maintenance is in the progress.

Recently, the e-way billing system got lapsed due to the bad technology and also some of the overlooked factors. And now that the e-way bill is put on hold, it has become a hurdle for the MSMEs with no way out. Also, the government is also triggering the ideas on daily basis for the GST regime in order to make the process smoother.

Conclusion

With minor tasks like GST registration online, return filing, calculation, invoice preparation, etc. becoming easy, the new taxation regime could touch new heights. But it won’t happen overnight as the government is still working on the regime making it simpler for the taxpayers to comply with. Similarly, the taxpayers and especially the MSMEs would have to keep gazing at the government’s activities and modification they make. However, if some processes like multiple return filing and different tax slabs would be reduced or made more effective, the way to repay the loan would become clearer for MSMEs.