To ease GST related woes for the MSME sector the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced that all pending GST refunds will be paid within 30 days. Further, all future GST refunds will be sorted out in 60 days, she said. 

This will ease the working capital burden on MSMEs, the FM hoped. “This is clearly time bound now. Everything that is pending since the time of introduction of GST till today and have a refund pending will be sorted out in 30 days. The government has worked to clear it in the next 30 days. 

For every future GST refunds, every matter will be sorted out in 60 days, she added. “MSMEs do not have to be worried about money being stuck,” said Sitharaman. 

According to M S Mani, Partner, Deloitte India, “Expediting GST refunds would significantly benefit businesses having refunds in improving their working capital in the short term.” 

Assuring taxpayers that GST will come up with even lesser number of forms, the FM said refunds should go through as a process and she would be meeting with GSTN on Sunday to check the refund process. “Having fewer GST forms would encourage enhanced compliance by existing taxpayers and also address compliance concerns of those planning to obtain registration thereby enhancing the overall taxpayer base,” said Mani. 

In another decision, the FM announced that use of GSTN is to be used for all bill discounting on TReDS. The decision is supposed to streamline the procedures for MSMEs. 

"If there are large companies on TReDS (trade receivable financing of MSMEs) platform who owe money to MSMEs then those companies can now use GSTN for all bill discounting made on TReDS," Sitharaman added. 

Banks will also honour the bills/papers from MSMEs that are GST-complaint and approved, she said, adding that GST and TReDS will now work in sync to create a hassle-free experience to MSMEs. 

The FM further added that the government is committed to introducing a single meaningful definition of MSME, under the MSME act, which will soon be tabled before the cabinet. 

“The Government is proactively implementing many of the recommendations of the UK Sinha- led RBI Committee. The said committee's several decisions and recommendations, including on ease of credit, marketing, technology, delayed payment etc will now be sorted out in 30 days," she said. #casansaar (Source - PTI, Economic Times)