Saving
Two Birds with
One Grain ?
Being a Jain , I could not get myself to
say : Killing two birds
with one stone
But , in its meeting tomorrow, GST Council is reported to consider acceptance of my suggestion to incentivize Digital Payments
Here is what today’s Economic
Times reports :
GST Council may
discuss proposal tomorrow, has option of incentivising merchants & customers
A
year after demonetisation, India is getting ready to give digital payments yet
another push.
It could consider providing incentives in the goods and services tax (GST)
regime for payments that are settled electronically .
“There is a thinking
that digital transactions
need to be incentivised... The council will
look at what could be done,“
As far as digital payments are concerned, the
council has the option of incentivising merchants and customers.
Under the proposal, benefits
in terms of credit or exemption could
be provided within central and state GST to encourage such transactions.
A merchant could, for instance, get
credit for digital
payments that can be adjusted against GST
liabilities.
Consumers, on the other hand, could be incentivised through lower tax
when payments are made digitally .
==============================
MY REQUEST TO THE GST COUNCIL :
While considering “ Incentivizing of Digital
Payments “ , seize this opportunity of providing “ Universal Social Security
“ to millions of Indians , who are , today , NOT covered by any PROVIDENT
FUND scheme , as outlined in my following earlier emails :
·
Jan Dhan SarjanYojana……………….. [ 31
Aug 2015 ]
======================================================
·
GST Conundrum : A compromise Formula [ 28 July
2016 ]
=======================================================
·
How to universalizeSocial Security [ 01 July
2017 ]
=======================================================
Where , I suggested as
follows :
* If GST is going to be ( say ) 20 % ,
Government will transfer from this ,
2 % ( ie 10 % of that 20 % ) , to the PPF account of the Consumer /
Buyer , who
pays for the Goods / Services purchased , using a RuPay
Card or a
" Mobile Wallet " app
This will motivate millions of self - employed to open PPF accounts !
{
In cases of Buyers who , do not have a PPF account on the date of her
first Digital Payment , the Mobile
App will AUTOMATICALLY register / open such an account and the Buyer
will get an SMS intimation ! No hassle
to open a PPF account ! }
* Since interest from a PPF account
is tax-free , every citizen would , now
want to make
all payments thru RuPay card or a Mobile Wallet App
* RuPay cards are already tied up with accounts opened under Jan Dhan
Yojana
* Mobile Wallets Apps will also get tied-up with thousands of branches of
Payment
Banks , which will open in next 18 months
Just imagine the number of new accounts that will get opened in the
1,55,000 + post offices of India Post !
* In this way , Social Security will become " Self
Financing " !
* Currently , in India , some 97 % of all payments are " Cash
Payments ".
With
introduction of this proposal , these will drastically decline
* Any payment made , using RuPay card or a Mobile Wallet App , will make
available to
the Income Tax Department , full digitized record of each
such
transaction , including :
# Who made the payment
# To whom was that payment made
# When was that payment made
# For what purchase , was that payment made
# What was the amount paid
* One , very desirable consequence of Jan Dhan Sarjan Yojana
will be
that our " Domestic Savings Rate " will climb back to 30 % !
===================================================
09 Nov 2017
www.hemenparekh.in
/ blogs
