This Deepavali season is the first time in nearly a decade when Aseem Triwedi, a shopkeeper in the Chandni Chowk area here, has had to spend more time in front of his counter than behind it. By doing so, he can speak to customers through his door, urging them to pay by cash so that he can avoid the hassles of the Goods and Services Tax. He is not the only shopkeeper making this plea to customers.
Numerous shopkeepers across the city have been increasingly transacting in cash so that they can avoid filling out complicated GST forms.
Poor awareness
A lack of awareness has also meant that a recent simplification of the rules by the government has gone unnoticed by the businesses the changes were specifically meant to benefit.
A shopkeeper says 80% of the transactions are now in cash, compared with 50% earlier.
“I have been turning away customers who want to pay by card, since I want only cash payments for this period,” Mr. Triwedi told The Hindu as Deepavali is just a few days away. “This GST has forced my hand. There is so much that they are asking, and I have to do it every month? We are small shopkeepers. Why can’t we be spared this hassle?”
Mr. Triwedi said several shopkeepers in the Chandni Chowk area had decided to conduct transactions in cash and make informal bills so that they would not have to report these transactions while filing their GST returns. “Many of us have completed registration for GST,” Amit Aggarwal, another shopkeeper in the area, said. “We had to because some of us have deals with nearby companies to provide them lunch on a daily basis. They got our GST registration done for us since they need it for their records. But that also means we have to file our returns under GST.”
Input credit
Under GST rules, any company purchasing items from a vendor needs to quote that vendor’s GST number in their returns, if they want to get input tax credits. So, such companies have either shifted their businesses to vendors registered on the GST Network (GSTN), or have got their vendors registered on it. The rules also say that, once registered on the GSTN, these vendors have to file regular returns.
The GST Council recently changed the rules and reduced the compliance burden on small businesses by allowing those with a turnover of ₹1.5 crore a year or less to file quarterly returns instead of the earlier mandated monthly returns.
This piece of news has not reached the shopkeepers of Delhi, it appears. Those The Hindu spoke to in Chandni Chowk had no idea about the rule change, while those in the Chittaranjan Park and Dwarka areas did not know about the easier GSTR-3B form that can be filed up to December, instead of the more complicated GSTR-1, 2, and 3 forms.
“There have been no awareness drives this time around,” Ashwani Sengupta, a sweetmeat seller in Chittaranjan Park’s Market 1, said.
“After demonetisation, government officials came to show us how to do transactions with Paytm, and with card machines. I already knew, but there were others who did not know. But this time, with GST, we have been left all alone.”
“I know of this rule only because you have just told me,” Mr. Sengupta added.
“How can we do this if the government will not help us learn,” Rakesh Sharma from Dwarka’s Sector 22 market, asked. “We cannot afford an accountant, but we are being forced to accept cash payments so that we don’t have to fill so much in the GST forms. We are honest shopkeepers, and are loyal to our country. But now we are being forced to do something illegal. We are very sad.”
(All names have been changed on the request of
the interviewees)
