Chief Commissioner of Customs, Central Excise and Central Taxes Pullela Nageswara Rao, and Deputy Director (GST Intelligence) K. Harish sought to lift the veil of ambiguity shrouding the tax structure and processes applicable to the advertising industry under the fledgling GST regime at a ‘GST Talk’ organised by The Hindu and The Hindu BusinessLine in association with the Kerala Management Association here on Friday.
Giving an overview of the dual mode of GST collection in the federal structure that the country has, Mr. Rao said businesses would be more competitive under GST and it would be the quality of services provided, not discounts, that would give them the competitive edge.
Mr. Harish said the intent behind the new taxation regime was not to fleece businesses. “You would still have doubts about the tax acts promulgated decades ago, but GST is just 48 days old and so, it would be prudent to give it at least six to seven months to have more clarity,” he said.
In the meantime, since GST payment and filing of returns would start soon, the department would be organising a live demonstration at its headquarters in Kochi on August 23. “The form is submitted electronically, easy even for school kids,” said Mr. Rao.
The session witnessed a number of print media advertising agents voicing their concerns over billing clients, with Mr. Harish pointing out a few models – the ‘pure agency’ model, with just 5% tax, where the agency is just via media for space selling; and the model of having separate invoices for space selling and creative inputs, which invites 18% tax. He stressed the need for clear and unambiguous agreements between the agency and clients (even invoice is considered an agreement) and also offered clarification on the processes of service exports and reverse charge under the GST. Nambi Rajan Narayanan, chief financial officer and company secretary, The Hindu Group; C.S. Suresh, AVP-commercial, The Hindu ; and Vivek Krishna Govind, president of KMA, spoke.
