With the threshold for registration under GST being as low as INR 20 lakh, a large number of small and medium size businesses would now come under the new tax regime. Considering these Organisations may not have the infrastructure and resources to comply with the regular provisions, a Composition Scheme under GST has been introduced.
Let us take a look at the applicability, eligibility criteria, conditions, and other provisions of this scheme.
Who can opt for the Composition Scheme?
- Manufacturer
- Food and Restaurant Services
- Traders
The decision to opt for the Composition Scheme should be made at the beginning of the Financial Year for a person already registered under the GST Law or at the time of applying for registration or within 30 days from the 1st of July, 2017 in case of person migrating from the existing provision.
What is the eligibility criteria to opt for the Composition Scheme?
A person in any of the above categories, whose aggregate turnover did not exceed INR 75 lakhs* in the previous financial year is eligible to opt for this scheme.
Aggregate Turnover = Value of Outward Supplies + Zero Rated Outward Supplies + Exempt Outward Supplies
Aggregate Turnover covers all the supplies effected by a person having the same PAN.
* The threshold limit for opting Composition Scheme in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh is INR 50 lakhs.
What are the rates of taxes under the Composition Scheme?
Category of Persons | Rates of Tax |
Manufacturer | 2% |
Food and Restaurant Services | 5% |
Traders | 1% |
Tax is payable on the Turnover of the Person in a State or Union Territory.
Turnover in a State or Union Territory = (Value of Outward Supplies + Zero Rated Outward Supplies + Exempt Outward Supplies)
Illustration
Is the supply of bakery products eligible for Composition Scheme under the Food and Restaurant Services category?
The supply of food and restaurant services category is the only service included under the composition scheme. For a business to be categorised as food and restaurant services, there needs to be an element of service involved. In the case of supply of bakery products, there is only a supply of goods i.e. food items but there is no element of supply of service. Hence supply of bakery products is eligible for composition scheme under the Traders category and not Food and Restaurant Services category.
What are the conditions to be complied with, to opt for the Composition Scheme?
The person should not be:
- engaged in the supply of services other than the food and restaurant services
- engaged in the supply of alcohol liquor for human consumption
- engaged in the manufacture of ice-cream, pan masala or other tobacco products and tobacco substitutes
- engaged in inter-state outward supply of goods
- engaged in making a supply of goods through an ecommerce operator unless the portal is owned by the said person
- a casual person or a non-resident person
- in possession of stock purchased through interstate trade or transfers or imports on the appointed day
- in possession of stock purchased from an unregistered dealer and if he is in possession of such stock, tax under reverse charge mechanism has been paid
What are the other provisions that one needs to keep in mind while opting for the Composition Scheme?
- Composition scheme, once opted will apply to all the business verticals of the said person i.e. the option of the scheme will be awarded to all the businesses owned by a person under a single PAN.
Illustration
Combination of businesses owned by a person under a single PAN | Applicability of Composition Scheme |
Restaurant, mobile dealership and textile manufacturing unit | Yes |
Restaurant, supply of mobile through an ecommerce operator | No |
2. The person shall not collect tax from his customers on the outward supply made by him
3. The person shall not utilise the input tax credit on his inward supplies to pay his output tax liability.
4. The person shall continue to pay taxes at the regular rates for inward supplies under the reverse charge mechanism
How is Input Credit treated at the time of opting for Composition Scheme?
On opting for the Composition Scheme, if the said person has any input credit available, then he shall reverse the amount equal to the input credit on the stock held by him on the immediately preceding day of exercising the option. The stock can be inputs, semi-finished goods, finished goods or capital goods. The remaining value of input credit, if any shall lapse.
In case of a person migrating from the current laws to the Composition Scheme under GST, then again all the input to his credit under the current laws shall lapse.
Can a person who has opted to pay tax under Composition Scheme avail input credit on the inward supply of goods and services?
A person who has opted to pay tax under the Composition Scheme cannot claim input credit on the inward supply of goods and services. The input taxes paid on inward supply of goods and services shall be an additional cost to such person.
What type of an invoice should a person opting for the composition scheme issue on outward supplies made by him?
A person opting for composition scheme shall not issue a tax invoice. He should issue a Bill of Supply and clearly mention “Composition Taxable Person, Not Eligible to Collect Tax on Supplies” on top of the invoice issued by him.
The Bill of Supply must have the following details:
- name, address and GSTIN of the supplier,
- a consecutive serial number containing only alphabets and/or numerals, unique for a financial year,
- date of its issue,
- name, address and GSTIN/ Unique ID Number, if registered, of the recipient,
- HSN Code of goods or accounting code for services,
- description of goods or services,
- value of goods or services taking into account discount or abatement, if any, and
- signature or digital signature of the supplier or his authorized representative.
It is important to note that, since a person opting for Composition Scheme cannot issue a tax invoice, he breaks the benefit of transfer of input credit down to the end of the value chain.
What are the returns required to be filed under the Composition Scheme?
Form Name | Particulars | Periodicity | Due Date | Penalty Provisions |
GSTR 4 | Details of Outward supplies, debit notes issued, credit notes received, import of goods or services made, invoice wise inter-state and intra-state inward supplies from registered and un-registered dealers. This return should be filed after adding, correcting or changing details, if required in Form GSTR 4A. | Quarterly | 18th of the Month following the Quarter | Any delay in filing of the returns attracts a liability of INR 100 per day subject to a maximum of INR 5,000 |
GSTR 4A | The details of all outward supplies made by a supplier under a regular scheme has to be furnished in Form GSTR1. If a Composition Dealer has availed any goods or services from other Registered Persons, then he will be able to view the details of his input goods or services in Form GSTR 4A. | Monthly | Between 11th and 15th of every month | |
GSTR 9A | Annual Return | Annual | 31st of December following the end of the Financial Year for which the Annual Return is being filed | Any delay in filing of the returns attracts a liability of INR 100 per day subject to a maximum of an amount calculated at 0.25% on the Turnover in that State or UT |
What are the accounts and records that need to be maintained by a Composition Dealer?
- Record of monthly production accounts, showing quantitative details of raw materials or services used in the manufacture and quantitative details of the goods so manufactured including the waste and by products
- Opening balance, receipt, supply, goods lost, stolen, destroyed, written off or disposed of by way of gift or free sample and balance of stock including raw material, finished goods, scrap and wastage thereof
- Names and complete addresses of premises where he stores stocks including stocks in transit and stocks stored there in
- Names and complete addresses of suppliers to whom he supplies goods or services chargeable to tax
- Separate account of advances received, paid and adjustments made thereto
- Register of Bill of Supply issued
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What happens if the person under Composition Scheme exceeds the threshold limit of INR 75 lakhs during the Financial Year?
The person shall be immediately liable to pay tax as per the normal rates specified by the GST Law and thereby all the regular provisions of the law will become applicable to him. He will be able to claim input credit on the stock held by him on the immediately preceding day of exercising the option. The stock can be inputs, semi-finished goods, finished goods or capital goods. The date of invoice of the input supplies should not be earlier 1 year from the date preceding the date on which the regular provisions of the law become applicable to him.
Decision making: Composition Scheme vs Regular Tax Levy
We need to understand that the GST Law replaces all the other Indirect Tax statutes in the Country, thereby allowing each supplier to pass on the credit of input tax down the supply chain. This reduces the effect of additional tax burden at each stage from manufacture to trader to the customer and encourages tax levy only on the value addition at each stage.
The thumb rule we could use at the time of making this decision is not to apply for a Composition Scheme if the person is in the middle of the value chain i.e. all the B2B businesses. We could look at opting for the Composition Levy in the case of B2C businesses so far as the benefit of paying tax under the Composition Scheme far outweighs the cost of compliance under the regular scheme and other factors relevant to the business in question.
Illustration 1
Let us take the example of Coir Mats to understand the benefits of remaining under the normal provisions versus composition scheme for the trader under composition levy.
Under Composition Scheme | Under the Normal Provisions | |||
Particulars | Amount
(INR) |
Particulars |
Amount (INR) |
|
Manufacturer to Trader | Manufacturer to Trader | |||
Sale Price | 100.0 | Sale Price | 100.0 | |
GST* @ 5% | 5.0 | GST* @ 5% | 5.0 | |
Total Invoice Value | 105.0 | Total Invoice Value | 105.0 | |
Trader to End User | Trader to End User | |||
Cost | 105.0 | Cost | 100.0 | |
Mark up @ 10% | 10.5 | Mark up @ 10% | 10.0 | |
Sale Price | 115.5 | Sale Price | 110.0 | |
Total Invoice Value | 115.5 | GST* @ 5% | 5.5 | |
Tax under Composition Levy @ 1% | 1.2 | Total Invoice Value | 115.5 |
In this illustration we can see that, a trader, who is in the middle of the value chain is better of remaining under the normal provisions, where his net tax liability is only INR 0.5 (i.e Output Tax of INR 5.5 – Input Tax of INR 5.0). Whereas under the composition scheme his net outflow on taxes would be INR 0.7 (i.e Output Tax of INR 1.2 – Additional profit of INR 0.5).
Now to this let us add the cost of compliance under both the schemes, being INR 1 under normal provisions and INR 0.5 under composition scheme.
Total outflow under the normal provisions is INR 1.5 and under compositions scheme is INR 1.2, making it more beneficial to opt for the composition scheme.
Illustration 2
Let us take the example of Coir Mats again to understand the benefits of remaining under the normal provisions versus composition scheme for the trader under composition levy if the manufacturer is also under the composition scheme.
Under Composition Scheme | Under the Normal Provisions | |||
Particulars | Amount
(INR) |
Particulars |
Amount (INR) |
|
Manufacturer to Trader | Manufacturer to Trader | |||
Sale Price | 100.0 | Sale Price | 100.0 | |
Total Invoice Value | 100.0 | GST* @ 5% | 5.0 | |
Tax under Composition Levy @ 2% | 2.0 | Total Invoice Value | 105.0 | |
Trader to End User | Trader to End User | |||
Cost | 100.0 | Cost | 100.0 | |
Mark up @ 10% | 10.0 | Mark up @ 10% | 10.0 | |
Sale Price | 110.0 | Sale Price | 110.0 | |
Total Invoice Value | 110.0 | GST *@ 5% | 5.5 | |
Tax under Composition Levy @ 1% | 1.1 | Total Invoice Value | 115.5 |
In this illustration we can see that, a trader, who is in the middle of the value chain is better off remaining under the normal provisions, where his net tax liability is only INR 0.5 (i.e Output Tax of INR 5.5 – Input Tax of INR 5.0). Whereas under the composition scheme his net outflow on taxes would be INR 1.1.
Now to this let us add the cost of compliance under both the schemes, being INR 1 under normal provisions and INR 0.5 under composition scheme.
Total outflow under the normal provisions is INR 1.5 and under compositions scheme is INR 1.6, making it more beneficial to still continue under the normal provisions.
Illustration 3
Let us take the example of a restaurant that is eligible to opt for the Composition Scheme based on our earlier discussion to understand the benefits of remaining under the normal provisions versus composition scheme.
In a restaurant business, we should be aware that there will be a certain amount of exempt/ nil rated inputs. Let us assume the value of these inputs to be 20% of the total inputs and the tax rate for the remaining inputs to be 18%.
Under Composition Scheme | Under the Normal Provisions | |||
Particulars | Amount
(INR) |
Particulars |
Amount (INR) |
|
Total Value of Inputs | 62.5 | Total Value of Inputs | 62.5 | |
Tax on 80% of Inputs at 18% | 9.0 | Tax on 80% of Inputs at 18% | 9.0 | |
Total Cost | 71.5 | Total Cost | 62.5 | |
Mark up @ 40% | 28.5 | Mark Up at 40% | 25.0 | |
Sale Price | 100.0 | Sale Price | 87.5 | |
Composition Levy at 5% | 5.0 | GST* at 18% | 15.8 |
In this illustration we can see that, the net benefit for a person under the composition scheme is INR 1.5 (i.e Output Tax of INR 5.0 – Incremental Gross Margin of INR 3.5). Whereas under the normal provisions his net outflow on taxes would be INR 6.8, making it more beneficial to opt for the Composition Scheme.
These illustrations are only indicative of how an impact analysis may be done to choose between compliance under the normal provisions and composition scheme. You may have to consider additional factors unique to each business and industry. For example in illustration 2, the final sale price of the product under the composition scheme is more competitive to the sale price under the normal provisions. If the majority of the industry (both manufacturers and traders) are under composition levy, then persons under normal provisions may take a hit on the sales volumes or if they discount the price, then a hit on the profit margins.
(*GST = CGST + SGST)