Business
The stalwarts of Indian e-commerce - Flipkart's Sachin Bansal and Snapdeal's Kunal Bahl - along with Amazon India's Amit Agarwal, joined hands on Thursday to pick on the Tax Collection at Source (TCS) clause in the Goods and Services Tax.
Updated : Mar 23, 2018, 03:15 AM IST
The stalwarts of Indian e-commerce - Flipkart's Sachin Bansal and Snapdeal's Kunal Bahl - along with Amazon India's Amit Agarwal, joined hands on Thursday to pick on the Tax Collection at Source (TCS) clause in the Goods and Services Tax.
The three men were speaking at the E-commerce industry in India's press meet organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci).
Currently underway: Press Meet on #Ecommerce industry in #India with @1kunalbahl @_sachinbansal @SecyGEN_ficci pic.twitter.com/DjEXCO4V0Y
— FICCI (@ficci_india) February 9, 2017
Flipkart's Executive Chairman Sachin Bansal told the audience that Tax Collection at Source (TCS) within the GST Bill was an "area of concern for e-commerce". Bansal said that thanks to TCS, nearly Rs 400 crore of capital would be locked into the system. This would hamper the working capital of the e-companies.
Due to TCS, close to 400 crores p.a. of capital will be locked in to the system. It'll hamper the working capital: @_sachinbansal #eCommerce pic.twitter.com/2iC0yQ6EoA
— FICCI (@ficci_india) February 9, 2017
In the GST Model Law, TCS was proposed particularly for e-commerce companies. In a bid to keep a check on tax evasion, the government proposed TCS which would make the e-commerce companies responsible to collect tax deductible from the e-tailers payments and report it to the government. However, given that every e-commerce platform has thousands of sellers, the process would be quite cumbersome.
Tax collection at source is an exception created for online. (It isn't for offline): Amit Agarwal, @amazonIN #eCommerce pic.twitter.com/lZE4bnny5E
— FICCI (@ficci_india) February 9, 2017
ax evasion can be avoided by sharing of information (that we're already doing with states) : @_sachinbansal #eCommerce pic.twitter.com/FFf0zwcEmg
— FICCI (@ficci_india) February 9, 2017
A report by NDTV said that the e-commerce companies believed that the law in its existing form, with TCS as a part, could bring the thriving industry to a standstill.
"E- commerce is the confluence of digital India, Start-up India and Make in India. TCS will be an impediment," Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl, said.