E-commerce giants Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal joined hands to oppose the GST provision. These three companies set aside their differences and came together on Thursday to voice their opinions on tax collection at source (TCS) under the draft model Goods and Service Tax (GST).
According to TCS Norms, online markets should deduct an amount from the total payable to sellers and remit it to the government.
Sachin Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart spoke on the press meet on 9th of this month saying: “None of us is saying GST is bad. It is going to be transformative for e-commerce sector as well as India. However, TCS is a serious issue.”
He also added saying that there are many other ways to ensure that the sellers on the online market platform pay their fair share of taxes.
Amazon’s India head Amit Agarwal and co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal Kunal Bahl said e-commerce companies can share data with the authorities and this will surely make sellers more tax complaint.
At a FICCI event, Bansal confirmed that this had been already taking place in three states – Rajasthan, Delhi, and Kerala.
Bahl said that the proposal of tax collection at source is directed only at e-commerce marketplaces.
Mr. Agarwal, however, said that TCS would completely change the path of e-commerce in India. He also said in a statement: “It is upon us to figure out policies that make the flywheel spin faster while achieving the objectives. And you can achieve this through real time data information sharing.”