Traders with a turnover of less than ₹ 10 lakh a year are neither required to pay GST nor to take registration for it.
Those with annual sales between ₹ 10 lakh and ₹ 50 lakh will need to pay tax at a rate lower than standard GST rate.
However, the concessional tax rate would not be available for traders making inter-State transactions irrespective of their turnover.
The quantum of concession will be decided by proposed GST Council which will also determine standard GST rate.
For Northeastern States, the threshold could be ₹ 5 lakh.
This proposed minimum turnover levels for GST mean two things:
Thousands of small traders below annual sales of ₹ 10 lakh would go out of the tax net as in many State VAT threshold is ₹ 5 lakh.
Some of the tiny manufacturing units will come under the tax net given that the Central Excise duty is now payable only for units with ₹ 1.5 crore turnover.
[Source: The Indian Express, New Delhi, dated 9-5-2015]
