CAIT Urges Govt To Exempt Software From GST

In the wake of encouraging more people to adopt digital technology, the CAIT has suggested that government should exempt the accounting software from tax under GST or bring the same under the tax slab of 5 per cent which is capped under 18 per cent tax rate.

As per a feedback received by Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) from different parts of the country has revealed that during the last five days of the roll-out of GST, the demand for computer hardware has increased by 20 per cent. While at the same time, the demand for accounting software has also increased up to 50 per cent in comparison to the last month. About 40 per cent of this demand comes from a metro and big cities whereas rest of the 60 per cent demand relates to smaller towns in different States across the Country.

It is interesting to note that in metro cities, largely the demand relates more on up gradation of existing Computer Hardware & Software whereas in tier 2 & tier 3 cities more demand relates to new Computers & Software.This demand is also likely to increase in the coming weeks.

The CAIT has maintained that nearly 60% of small businesses in the Country particularly in tier2 and tier3 cities still have not computerised their existing business format whereas GST is entirely based on e-compliance having four verticals e-tax, e-return, e-audit & e-assessment.  However, currently, there is the huge disparity between the tax rates on the different component of computers making them unfeasible for the small traders, according to CAIT.

CAIT National President B.C.Bhartia & Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that there is the huge difference in tax rates on computer hardware like CPU is at 18 per cent and the Monitor is at 28 per cent which is complicated and discouraging for the small traders while they endeavour towards adopting GST regime in true spirit.

“Looking at the emerging demand and to promote more and more traders to adopt digital technology, it is urgent that all sorts of Computer Hardware should be capped under one tax rate may be at 18 per cent and the spare parts of the computers may also be taxed at lower rates to make it easy for the traders to upgrade their systems without straining their finances", added Khandelwal.