GST Council may clear sweeping compliance reforms; e-commerce sellers, genuine biz to get relief

The GST Council is likely to consider sweeping process reforms on Wednesday to make tax compliance easier for businesses, including allowing small e-commerce sellers to use platform warehouses for GST registration, protecting genuine buyers' input tax credit and reducing low-value litigation, sources said.

The proposals, part of the GST 2.0 process reforms, seek to simplify registration and return filing, make goods movement more predictable and reduce disputes between taxpayers and the tax department.

One of the proposals seeks to allow small sellers using e-commerce platforms to treat the platform's warehouse as their registered place of business in states where they do not have their own premises. A seller would need a genuine presence in one state, where physical verification and Aadhaar authentication would be completed, and registrations in other states could be obtained with the consent of the e-commerce platform without further tax-officer involvement.