E-commerce major Flipkart today expressed concern over a clause relating to tax collection at source in the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bill. “We believe that TDS process that has been recommended about holding some tax and paying that on behalf of the seller, that I think is something that will be very difficult for us to implement in practise,” Flipkart Executive Chairman Sachin Bansal told reporters here.
Flipkart had earlier said that the said clause would prove detrimental to lakhs of small and medium sellers who do business on e-commerce platforms. This clause, which is not applicable to offline sellers, would hurt the working capital requirement for these sellers as they work on small margins to provide affordable rates to consumers, it had said.
Bansal was speaking after meeting Industries Minister RV Deshpande here. Calling it a courtesy meeting Bansal said, “I wanted to tell him about the activities in the internet space, especially in Karnataka as Bengaluru is at the center of the Internet revolution that is happening in India.” “I have made some broad suggestions, broad thoughts were discussed and we have exchanged ideas,” he added.
He also clarified that Flipkart’s tax issues with the State Government were not discussed in the meeting on Wednesday. To a question, Bansal said Flipkart would continue to invest in Karnataka.
“Absolutely. We have about 5,000 people working here right now, our head count is growing and we will continue to grow over here. We have lot of presence here; we have warehouses in the state. So we will continue to invest.” On his lessons as a Chairman, Bansal said: “Definitely it has become more external focused, but I am very much involved in the day-today operations as well.”