PANAJI
With the wedding season expected to pick up in the coming weeks, a number of small vendors, mostly florists, DJs, bands, and mehndi designers associated with the industry are bound to get affected due to demonetisation as they mostly deal in cash to conduct their business.
For organising the so called 'big fat Indian weddings', more and more people are expected to make payments through cheques to these vendors as hard currency is difficult to come by, and this in turn will make it very tough for them to evade tax.
The central government has announced that Rs 2.5 lakh is the withdrawal limit from an account for a wedding by either bride or groom or parents.
But, despite this, wedding planners are of the opinion that it will become more and more difficult for anyone to make any kind of payment in cash to vendors. Due to this, these vendors will have to align their business models so that they accept payments by cheque and also pay service tax.
As of now, a large number of such small vendors don’t pay any tax since they are paid in cash. Dennis Figueiredo, owner, The Big Day Wedding Planners, said, “Earlier, a lot of vendors would say pay us half in cash and half through bank transfer to avoid the full burden of service tax. These are typically people who undertake orders of decoration, mehndi, lighting, photography and even bands. They will all have to fall in line now.”
Such vendors will have to accept that they will be paid by cheque. They will then have to include service tax in their bill, which will make their services more expensive. But, there is no way out for them now.
Leslie Remedios, owner, Reynold Weddings, said, “Ten years ago, everyone involved in the wedding business would accept only cash. But, we are paying everyone by cheque. People will have to tell their vendors like DJs, florists, etc, that they can be paid only by cheque and not cash. And, I think this will be a good move.”
