It has been almost a week, and, GST- Goods and Services Tax Bill has become the trending subject both in the country and the Internet. Some went criticizing the bill, some applauded the government for taking such a historic move, meanwhile, there’s another category of people who are not well aware of the bill yet.
Many aren’t yet aware of the various slabs on taxing, enthusiasm seems to be quite high. There is no doubt that the government is trying its best to clear all the doubts regarding GST but still, there are many questions in the minds of people which have not been answered yet.
Despite all these opinions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended up calling Goods and Services Tax (GST) a “Good and Simple Tax”, ironically, to common people there is nothing simple. Now after the GST came into rule on Jul 1st, 2017, diverse emotions were noticed, as it is expected, some looked quite disappointed, some confused and others delighted.
And creating more confusion and chaos among the people, there were even some rumors started spreading in the social circle, like this one which says that a customer will pay GST twice if he/she makes the payment for utility bills such as electricity, gas, mobile, telephone, etc. using credit cards.
Here is the message which is doing rounds on the messaging platform, WhatsApp:
“Friends – Do not make payment of utility bills like Telephone, Electricity, Gas, Mobile etc by Credit Card from now. You will be paying GST twice, once for the service, second on the credit card amount. Use cash or Internet banking. Share this information.”
This unofficial message went rounds on the social media like a wildfire on Sunday, creating a lot of chaos among the people largely.
However, revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia took to Twitter to clear what’s the real truth behind this viral message on WhatsApp.
In a series of tweets, he wrote, “A wrong message is doing rounds on social media that if u make payment of utility bills by credit cards, you will be paying GST twice. This is completely untrue. Please do not recirculate such message without checking it with authority.”
1/2 A wrong message is doing rounds on social media that if u make payment of utility bills by credit cards,you will be paying GST twice.
— Dr Hasmukh Adhia (@adhia03) July 2, 2017
2/2 This is completely untrue. Please do not recirculate such message without checking it with authority.
— Dr Hasmukh Adhia (@adhia03) July 2, 2017
One thing that should be noted is that even before GST was implemented, banks used to charge service tax only on annual charges, processing fees on the EMIs and interest payments and not on the payments of credit card which are made timely. However, now the customer has to pay more as service tax was 15% and GST is 18% on financial services. So the customer will pay 3% more tax under GST but there is no question of paying GST twice.
GST is one of the most revolutionary steps taken by any Indian government till date. We request people to stop these types of rumors which ultimately result in doubts and chaos.
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