Singapore: With greater digitisation and formalisation of financial activities and businesses, India is set to become an "extremely attractive" country to do business, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said here on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Singapore Fintech Festival, Jaitley said the ongoing process of digitisation was a result of Aaadhar scheme coupled with financial inclusion, post demonetisation followed by the massive exercise on the improvement in the digital eco-payment system as well as the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax from July 1, 2017.
With greater digitisation and greater formalisation, India is set to become an extremely attractive place to do business, he said.
Jaitley drew the conference's attention to India's improved ranking in the World Bank's ease of doing business index released on October 31.
India jumped up 30 notches into the top 100 rankings on the World Bank's ease of doing business index. He, however, acknowledged short-term challenges for the country in implementing strategic initiatives such as demonetisation and the GST.
"But I have not the least doubt in my mind that the medium to long term, this is bound to produce long-term returns as far as the Indian economy is concerned," said Jaitley. The finance minister painted a big picture of the Indian economy, saying it is growing at a reasonable rate, integration of the formal with the informal economy as well as structural changes are taking place while the tax base itself is expanding.
A lot of transaction, that took place through the cash economy, is today getting increasingly digitalised and going through the banking system, he pointed out.
Jaitley, who is on a two-day visit to Singapore, will meet Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat laon Wednesday. On Thursday, he will meet Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and speak at the annual Asia Pacific Summit of global financial institutions being organised by Morgan Stanley.
GSTN utility for exporters to claim refunds now live
New Delhi: Merchant exporters can start claiming tax refunds using the new utility that will be activated on the GST Network portal tonight, GSTN CEO Prakash Kumar said.
With the new utility RFD-1A, a merchant exporter can claim refund of GST paid at the time of buying goods which he has exported in the relevant month.
"GST RFD-1A for refund of input tax credit on export of goods and services and additional amount in cash ledger would go live on GSTN portal tonight," Kumar said.
The refund claims can be filled for July-September and that would be matched with the corresponding GSTR-3B filed by the exporter.
Earlier, GSTN had launched the utility for processing refund claims by manufacturing exporters who had paid Integrated GST (IGST) while exporting goods.
Kumar further said a new functionality has been introduced on the portal that enables businesses to engage and disengage a GST Practitioner (GSTP).
As many as 46,000 people have applied for enrolling themselves as GST Practitioner and central tax officers are in the process of validating their applications.
"The list of practitioners would be put up on the GSTN portal and businesses can search for a GSTP in their locality and send request. The practitioner can then decide to accept it or reject," Kumar said.
He added that once the business appoints a practitioner, any communication sent to the taxpayer would be automatically sent to the authorised GSTP as well.
Besides, GSTN has come out with form REG-09 for registration of non-resident taxable persons who engage in supply of goods or services occasionally, but have no fixed place of business in India.