CAIT Urges Centre to Ease off GST Registration for Small Retailer

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) asks for a GST registration wave-off for selling products through eCommerce platforms from Nirmala Sitaraman, the Union Finance Minister.

In a joint statement released by CAIT, it is said that under the GST Act, a seller who intends to sell products online needs to get a GST number. Without this mandatory number, the seller isn’t permitted to sell anything online. Recently, CAIT also launched a movement to protest online practices. The provision of the Act is blocking lakhs of traders across the country from using eCommerce platforms to sell their products and earn profits right away.

CAIT even has reached out to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to cut off mandatory GST registration for selling products through e-commerce platforms. The CAIT further revealed that the mandatory GST registration is hindering the path of digital India as proposed by Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of the country, while urging the Finance Minister to ease off the regulations of the GST Council in this concern.

Speaking on the matter, B.C. Bhartia, the trader’s body’s president, and Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary-General, said, “Under the GST Act, a seller cannot sell their products until and unless having the GST number, which is barring lakhs of sellers from staying away from ecommerce platforms. 

However, many ministries and state governments are encouraging more and more sellers to use ecommerce platforms for their business. However, the strict provisions are barring many sellers from awaiting still earning profits online as they do not have any GST numbers. A significant number of sellers are unable to embrace the progressive road to success for online business, which is ultimately blocking the success of the country as a whole.” 

The government is putting strategies to bring small retailers at par with big fishes in the country; however, small retailers with an annual turnover of less than Rs. Forty lakhs are yet to get the required GST registration to join the digital platform and compete with the big names in the online space. 

The CAIT opined that instead of using the GST number, the small retailers should be allowed to use other identification such as Aadhar number, bank details, or similar other numbers to authenticate their eligibility to participate in ecommerce portals and websites. CAIT believed that adding more and more sellers would open new doors of success for artisans, cottage and household industries, artisans, and much more.