GST rejig: E-comm sellers brace for billing woes amid festive rush

MUMBAI: As scores of Amazon and Flipkart sellers put together for the upcoming festive season, which accounts for an enormous chunk of their annual gross sales, there’s lack of readability and confusion on the bottom in regards to the compliance challenges that the rejigging of GST slabs may probably convey forth. For one, some sellers are fearful that the modified tax charges will take time to replicate on the techniques of the platforms, given the heavy volumes of transactions throughout festive interval. This, they mentioned, would result in discrepancies in platform invoicing (it won’t replicate the up to date tax charge) which can impression the GST filings of sellers. “All listings on marketplaces, apps and websites must reflect the new rates promptly. Billing, accounting and inventory software needs to be updated by platforms and sellers because any delay or error can lead to wrong tax filings and penalties,” mentioned Sachin Manilal Gala, a vendor registered with main platforms together with Amazon and Flipkart.Every product bought on e-commerce platforms comes with a tax code, mentioned one other on-line vendor Chirag Haria. Sellers can replace the tax code however the problem is the timeline throughout which they need to get it up to date. “If 12% tax slab is removed and they are either moved to either 5% or 18% and say it comes into effect on September 22, when should the seller update the tax code of 5% or 18%? What about sales happening at 12 am on that day? In the past too, sellers have faced a similar issue whenever there were tax rate changes,” Haria mentioned.Sellers are additionally fearful about product returns. Given that the majority platforms are likely to have as much as seven-day return coverage , customers might select to return the product and reorder to make the most of the decreased GST charges. “There could be an issue with accounting for return. A product sold at 12% GST might get returned when the rate reduces to 5%,” mentioned a vendor.Queries despatched to Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and Meesho didn’t instantly elicit any response. The first leg of the most important on-line gross sales begins a couple of days earlier than Navaratri; sellers mentioned that if the GST cuts are carried out nearer to Diwali, it’ll hit their pre-Diwali festive gross sales.