Indian businesses blindsided by unclear sales tax rules

NEW DELHI: India´s nationwide sales tax was meant to unify the $2 trillion economy and make it easier for companies to transact across state borders.

Nearly a month on, many are finding that doing business is more complicated than ever. Ambiguous rules under the new, multi-rate Goods and Services Tax (GST) tax that went into effect on July 1 have left firms confused on how to price their products. The tax´s complex structure - four main rates ranging from 5 to 28 percent - has hurt sales and risks denting economic growth and government revenues in the months ahead.

Airlines, for example, are uncertain whether to tax premium economy seats as economy or business class - at rates of 5 percent or 12 percent, respectively. Auto repair shops face a similar quandary as GST rates vary for different jobs.

"People are either overcharging or undercharging for their work," said Surinder Paul, who runs one workshop in South Delhi. Even computer maker HP Inc, which is marketing a laptop product to help small businesses comply with the new tax, is seeking clarity.

Under the GST, desktops and laptops are taxed at 18 percent, while multi-function printers and monitors attract a 28 percent charge.  "Monitors, CPUs and other parts of a computer are imported as a single unit," said Poonam Madan, a tax official at HP.

"What rate do we charge - 18 or 28 percent?"Billed as India´s biggest tax reform since independence in 1947, the GST replaced more than a dozen federal and state levies and was meant to unify the country into a single market.

While teething troubles were expected, the ensuing chaos has some officials worrying about the repercussions for Asia´s third-largest economy.

Annual growth slowed in the January-March quarter to 6.1 percent, its weakest pace in more than two years.  If growth slows further, federal finances would face pressure.  A big test will come in September, when a grace period on filing complete monthly GST returns ends.

A survey by tax software provider Tally Solutions found that more than 40 percent of small businesses were still not up to speed on how the GST works and two-thirds hadn´t yet installed compliance software.

New Delhi has launched an active outreach programme to educate companies and explain different provisions of the new tax. The exercise has also become a crash course for tax officials in the anomalies of the new tax structure.

Officials have discovered that holiday tour operators are charging the new tax not only for services provided in India but also for those offered abroad.  While vegetable seeds remain tax exempt, paddy, cereal and corn seeds now attract 5 percent tax.

This has hit sales at companies such as Monsanto, whose local seed merchants have no experience of paying tax. "Our sales are getting hammered at a time when they would normally be booming," Arindam Lahiri, Monsanto´s taxation lead in Asia & Africa, told Reuters.

"This anomaly needs to be fixed urgently." Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, overseeing the GST rollout, tweeted this week that nearly 8 million businesses were enrolled to pay the tax and the transition "is going on smoothly".