Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has hailed the decision of Union Government to increase the threshold limit for registration of dealers from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh per annum.
He said that the decision of the Centre Government would go a long way in providing much needed relief to the businessmen of the state. Thus businessmen with less than Rs 20 lakh annual turnover would not be required to register under GST, he added.
Thakur said that the State Government had urged the Union Government to enhance the limit for the businessmen of Himachal keeping in view its difficult topographical conditions along with some other hilly states like Assam and Uttarakhand.
He said that now, most of the special category states would come under Rs 20 lakh threshold limit for registration of dealers thereby benefitting lakhs of businessmen.
The Chief Minister said that about 75 to 80 per cent businessmen were small businessmen in the state and they would be immensely benefitted from this decision of the Union Government.
Till date, over 92000 dealers have already registered under GST and out of these, over 80 per cent would be benefitted as they would be required to file lesser number of returns per annum, he said.
Thakur said that apart from this major decision, the Centre Government has also agreed that all the Business Concerns with annual turnover up to Rs 5 crores would now be required to file quarterly returns. Earlier this limit was Rs 1.5 crores and the businessmen were facing difficulty in and would now be relieved from the pressure of filing many returns on small businesses, he said.
The decision of the Union Government to reduce GST rates on washing machines, refrigerators mixers, footwear etc. would also provide much needed relief to middle classes. Also, the decision to exempt GST on sanitary napkins would benefit the health and hygiene of women. Earlier, 12 percent GST was being charged on sanitary napkins making it quite expensive, he added.