GST and Taxation for MSMEs: With the festive season just around the corner, a significant part of India’s SME and startup community is finding it tough to meet the September 30, 2019 deadline to file the income tax audit return even as they are focusing and preparing for the festive season particularly after experiencing a slowdown for a large part of this year, according to a survey of 4,956 startups and SMEs conducted by the LocalCircles on its platform.
50 per cent of the surveyed businesses said that it will be tough for them to file the income tax audit by September 30, 2019 deadline and have asked for its extension by two months till November 30 this year. Among these 50 per cent respondents, while 29 per cent said that it is almost impossible for them to meet the deadline, 21 per cent said that it will be an effort to file the audit on or before September 30. LocalCircles on behalf of these small businesses and startups also wrote to the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday in a letter for Central Board of Direct Taxation to extend the deadline.
“To help small business, startup and SME community focus on their businesses during the festive season, it is important for them if they don’t have to focus on compliances and paperwork,” LocalCircles Chairman and CEO Sachin Taparia told Financial Express Online.
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The government, however, has been taking multiple steps to boost ease of doing business for small businesses and ensure better availability of credit. For instance, MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday reiterated his ministry’s focus on solving credit problem for MSMEs. “We are reviewing the disbursement of the 59-min loan scheme for MSMEs,” the minister said talking to media during an event. He added that the government has got a credit line from ADB, World Bank, and KfW Group while the government is also in touch with the other global financial organisations including BRICS Development Bank, now known as New Development Bank.
India has around 6.3 crore MSMEs (as per government data till January 2019) that have a share of 45 per cent of India’s manufacturing sector and nearly 31 per cent to the services sector. Also, India’s MSME sector has created jobs for more than 110 million Indians.
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