Ease of doing business for MSMEs: A pan India survey of small businesses and startups by community social media platform LocalCircles on Monday said 42 per cent of 5,788 respondents are finding it difficult to meet September 30 deadline to file their tax return and audit report. 16 per cent of respondents said “it will be a significant effort” filing by this month-end while 26 per cent admitted it would be “impossible to file” by September 30 and hence requested an extension by 30-45 days. In contrast, 49 per cent of respondents said they have already filed their tax returns and audit reports.
“In light of the festive season and the flood disruption in several states, many businesses are focusing on their production/supplies in preparedness for the festive season after a slow 2020 and an average 2021 festive season. The government may want to consider giving a 30–45-day extension to ease things up a bit,” Sachin Taparia, Founder, LocalCircles told FEASPIRE.
According to the finance ministry, the direct tax collections for FY23, as on September 17 showed that net collections increased 23 per cent to Rs 7,00,669 crore from Rs 5,68,147 crore in the corresponding period of FY22. The gross collection of direct taxes (before adjusting for refunds) for FY23 was Rs 8,36,225 crore, up 30 per cent compared to Rs 6,42,287 crore in the corresponding period of FY22.
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While the festive season provides an opportunity for small businesses and retailers to leverage the surge in consumer spending, particularly post Covid, retailers this year are expecting a moderate growth trend in sales ahead of the festive season as the year-on-year growth rate for the past few months in comparison to pre-Covid continues to drop.
The latest edition of the Retail Business Survey by the Retailers Association of India (RAI) earlier this month noted retail units across India reporting growth of only 15 per cent in sales vis-a-vis August 2019 levels. This was down from 18 per cent in July from the year-ago period while April and May figures stood at 23 per cent and 24 per cent in comparison to April 2019 and May 2019 respectively. Meanwhile, e-commerce sales this festive season is expected to garner sales of $11.8 billion, up 28 per cent from last year’s sales, according to a report by consultancy firm Redseer.
Also read: India’s lending potential for MSMEs likely to reach Rs 3 trillion by FY23: CEA V Anantha Nageswaran
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