Karnataka Tax dept offers two alternatives to Amazon India

Karnataka's Commercial Taxes department has put across two conditions to the Indian arm of the Seattle-headquartered Amazon as an alternative to being registered as a dealer. Amazon India must disclose details of transactions carried out on its website and it must take primary liability if a merchant defaults paying value-added tax on transactions executed on Amazon. While Amazon has no problem with the first demand, it has declined to give into the second option.

Recently, the Delhi government's Value Added Tax department decided to bring all big and small e-commerce platforms under the scanner to check tax evasion. A notification would be sent out to all the players making it for them to file tax returns every quarter. All dealers operating through these platforms will also have to file their returns to avoid action against them.

The department has prepared a detailed set of guidelines on the process to be followed for all online portals and even the dealers transacting through them. The dealers can declare their details with regards to transactions executed through these portals both in Delhi and outside. Other states like Karnataka, Kerala and Rajasthan too are working out a strategy to bring ecommerce operators under the scanner by making filing of returns compulsory.