As an importer, what else do I need to be aware of after GST?

Question

Hello, I have given a website designing work to a company.
The total project cost is INR 30,000 and it will be executed in 3 phases(10K for each phase). The first phase is completed, I have paid 10,000 + GST (18%) i.e. 1800 for this phase. Then, the company is asking for the whole GST amount although the project is not completed yet, only first phase is done. They are saying that they would need to pay the whole GST amount to Govt. in the beginning.
Moreover, still the invoice is not raised as the project is not completed.

I don’t have any idea about GST, but as per common sense I think they are bluffing. How could they would need to pay taxes for the amount which is not received at their bank account?

Answer 1

The GST laws and rules do a fair job of making sure that any imports are subject to GST. Here are a few things to be aware of as an importer:

1. As noted above, any registered taxpayer purchasing from you as an importer is subject to pay IGST on those transactions via reverse charge mechanism.
2. The flip side to this first item is that any Indian business purchasing imported goods is required to register as a GST taxpayer regardless of their annual turnover. The 20-lakh rule does not apply here.
3. As noted above, if a non-resident without a permanent place of business occasionally comes to India and engages in any kind of transaction (goods or services), they are subject to GST registration.
4. The IGST law provides provisions to tax any use within India of online information services, including database access, online gaming, cloud services, digital content, etc. These provisions are complicated enough to be worthy of their own blog post. The important point here is that any company in India making use of internet-based services hosted outside of India needs to expect to pay GST on those services and understand how that will take place prior to July.