Big retail outlets yet to comply with new rules

JAIPUR: After the launch of Goods and Services Tax (GST) hailed as the biggest tax reform at midnight, there were malls which remained open for clearance of their old stock till late at night and Jaipurites were there to grab the opportunity to buy things in very less price.
Pink City market which witnessed a shut down on Friday in the protest against implementation of GST was again opened on the first day of GST on Saturday except the cloth market.The cloth traders (unbranded) are still protesting because of the 12% GST on textile.
One of the shopkeepers of cloth market in Badi Choupar said, “Government did not give us time to prepare for GST. Same they have done at the time of demonetisation. And by applying 12% GST on our business is an injustice to us.”
Some are also found complaining of the exclusion of petroleum products and liquor from the GST. “Why there is no GST on liquor then? If government is applying 12% GST on children’s book and 18% GST on non-conventional education services then why they have put liquor out of this GST league. Is liquor more necessary than education? Our business is not that affected by this tax reform as textbooks comes under legal system. But there are things that government officials do need to rethink on,” Shubham Agarwal, owner of Mehta Book Depot.
As there is no penalty for two months in filing tax return, some vendors taking their time. Even big retail outlets like Reliance Fresh, Big Bazaar, Vishal Mega mart are not GST compliance siting software error. “We have updated our system up to 50% only and rest we will be updating soon. Till then we are selling goods at MRP,” said a shopkeeper.
“All the discounts are off from today. There will be other discounts coming in 10-12 days as per GST driven rules. But most of the systems got updated in the morning itself before opening up the store. Every system is provided with GST number,” Banwari Choudhary, manager, Reliance Fresh.
In the online sector, there were less trafficking seen on shopping sites on the first day of GST implementation as after GST, online shopping went expensive because of the higher percentage of tax on goods above Rs 1,000. But the customers will receive faster delivery than before because the extra paperwork due to the state taxes has now come to an end. They do not have to get confused with different states tax so it will improve the delivery process, said an industry insider.
But the big discounts which came too often on these sites will get limited because from now onwards an e-commerce company will pay taxes on the price of the product at purchase from the supplier or manufacturer. So, the e-commerce companies will not be in a position to offer discounts too often, he said.
Even the cancellation and exchange policy will come under threat because the sellers themselves have to bear the tax and wait for the government for refunds at the time of cancellation so this will disrupt the process of returns and cancellation of online products.