GST Council seeks to ease registration & refund process

NEW DELHI: The GST Council has taken several decisions to ease the refund and registration process aimed at promoting ease of doing business and helping trade and industry.The Council simplified the GST registration scheme for small- and low-risk businesses.The Council has recommended introduction of optional simplified GST registration scheme, under which registration would be granted on automated basis within three hours from submission of the application in case of low-risk applications and applicants who, based on their own assessment, determine that their output tax liability on supplies to registered persons shall not exceed Rs 2.5 lakh per month. The scheme will provide for voluntary opting into and withdrawal.

It will benefit 96% of applicants and will be rolled out from Nov 1.The Council also approved in-principle introduction of a scheme of simplified registration for small suppliers supplying across states through electronic commerce operators. On refunds, the Council recommended amendment to a CGST rule to provide for sanction of 90% refund claimed as provisional refund by an officer on the basis of identification and evaluation of risk by the system. In exceptional cases, the officer may, instead of granting refund on a provisional basis, proceed with a detailed scrutiny of the refund claim.