Key Topics Covered:

• FEMA
• INCOME TAX
• COMPANIES ACT, 2013
• GST
• AUDIT
• LABOUR LAWS

This article is contributed by Partners of SBS and Company LLP - Chartered Accountant Company. You can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In Industrial and Commercial Organisations, it is the normal practice that the new employees are taken on probation. The probationary period may range between six months to two years depending on the nature of the role and responsibilities. During the probationary period a new employee performance and behaviour is required to be monitored and provide close supervision and coaching, guidance and training, either to learn a new job or to turn around a performance problem. The period is also required to be utilised to make the new employee to understand and integrate with the culture of the organisation besides systems and processes of working. The intent and object of such probationary period is rarely utilised by the organisations.

The other purpose of probationary period is to suspend or modify the usual employment rules for an employee and to understand and assess his or her on the job competencies, potential, behaviour patterns and commitment to the organisation and its objectives.

The implied promise or threat of a probationary period is that the employee will have to utilise the opportunity and perform to best of his abilities and if the employee fails to do so, he may not be considered for permanent employment and lose his employment at the end of probation or during the period of the probation.

To achieve the real objectives of the probationary period organisations may practice the below mentioned policies.

• Notify the employee the probationary period, the intent and consequences.
• Conduct periodic reviews with the employee to provide feedback and counselling.

• If the employee is having performance issues, detailed guidance may be provided on how the employee can improve—and offer training, if necessary.

• Assign a knowledgeable and experienced mentor to advise the employee.
• Treat the employee fairly and consistently.

• If an employee can’t do the job or improve performance, clearly document everything ie. employee’s performance, your efforts to coach and manage, training provided and so on.

The model standing orders provided in the Industrial Employment Standing Order Act has defined probationer as a workman who is provisionally employed to fill a permanent vacancy in a post and has not completed three months service therein. If a permanent employee is employed as a probationer in a new post he may, at any time during the probationary period of three months, be reverted to his previous permanent post.

Model standing orders are the guiding principles to the employer for finalisation of its own standing orders and certification of the same. When once the company standing orders are certified, the probationary period mentioned therein will be applicable. The three months mentioned therein is only indicative and not necessary applicable to all organisations.

The employer normally incorporates the period of probation and terms of extension of the same in the appointment order. If there is any conflict between the certified standing orders and the appointment order, the provisions contained in the certified standing orders shall prevail.

Most of the employees and also some of the employers believe that if no action is taken at the end of the probationary period and the employee is continued in the employment, it is deemed confirmation. It is not true. It will become deemed confirmation only if the rules of the company or the appointment order or the standing orders specifically incorporates such provision. The Constitution Bench in the matter of Sukhbans Singh V. State of Punjab and also in the matter of G S Ramaswamy and Ors v. Inspector-General of Police, Mysore has opined that a probationer cannot, after the expiry of the probationary period, automatically acquire the status of a permanent member of the service, unless of course, the rules under which he is appointed expressly provide for such a result.

Therefore even though a probationer may have continued to act in the post to which he is on probation for more than the initial period of probation, he cannot become a permanent servant merely because of efflux of time, unless the Rules of service which govern him specifically lay down that the probationer will; be automatically confirmed after the initial period of probation is over.

If provided in the appointment order, the services of the probationer can be terminated at the end of the probationary period or during the course of the probationary period without conducting an enquiry in accordance with the terms of employment. The Honble Punjab & Haryana HC in the matter of Jitender Kumar VS. P O, Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court, Gurgaon [2014 LLR 985] confirmed this view and the facts of the matter are as under:

The workman was appointed initially on 12.01.2001, on probation for a period of six months after two years of training. As per the appointment order the probationary period is liable to be extended at the sole discretion of the Management and workman is deemed to be on probation unless confirmed in writing. In accordance with the terms of appointment order the probationary period was extended for 3 months on 12.07.2001 till 11.10.2001, after advising him to be more careful in future by considering his appraisal report and asked him to improve his work and conduct. On 09.10.2001 that is just before completion of the extended probationary period the Management discharged the workman by holding that his work and conduct was not found upto the expectation of the Management. Compensation and notice pay, along with the letter of termination of service was also sent to him and the discharge was after the Management had reviewed the working of the probationers on 08.10.2001 wherein it was noticed that the probationer was remaining absent, adversely affecting the working of the Company, doing illegal activities at the gate of the Company and affecting the industrial peace of the Company.

The court held, the Management is within its right to discharge the workman from his services in view of his conduct during period of probation since the main object of appointment of a person on probation is to enable the employer to assess his suitability in the establishment during the probation period and afterwards. Hence, no regular enquiry is required in such matter since the termination is neither stigmatic nor against the conditions of employment.

In another matter [DM, Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation Vs. Kamruddin 2009 LLR 945] Supreme Court opined that dismissal of a probationer, for unsatisfactory work, will not be interfered by the courts.

The HR function has to take up the responsibility of monitoring, guiding, counselling and assisting the probationers to cope up with the work requirements and also document the deficiencies, if any, found during the probationary period so as to enable the management to take an appropriate decision on the probationary workmen. If this is not done, the purpose for which the probationary period has been created will be defeated.

What is SUPPLY CHAIN Management..?

All activities associated with the flow and transformation of goods from the raw materials stage, through to end users, as well as the associated information inflows. This includes material and information flows both up and down supply chain. Therefore supply chain includes a whole horde of systems such as systems management, operations and assembly, purchasing, production schedule, order processing, inventory management, transportation, warehousing, and customer service.

Download Supply Chain Management In Hospitality Industry PDF

In today’s changing business environment, there is an increased focus on delivering value to the customer at the cheapest possible costs. Hence there has been increased interest in logistics and supply chain management practices since performance is not only determined by actions and decision, but also the improvements on return on investment and greater profitability.

Hotel companies, both big and small, must focus on how to offer products and services while keeping costs low. In an industry which is labor intensive many hotels are forced to make bolder and more visible moves in costs reduction to their operations. It comes as no surprise that much of these costs cutting efforts have been focused on payroll and other employee associated costs, like hiring freezes, cuts in employee perks, reduction of bonuses, and reductions in salaries.

One area of the hotel industry that is usually left out in cost cutting efforts is its logistics and supply chain operations. Even though logistics and supply chain is considered an operations management strategy in the hotel and other service industries, they can use these strategies to help add value to their properties. The supply chain is an important element within the hotel and catering industry.

A well-established logistics and supply chain management system can help the hotel industry give individual hotel companies a sustainable competitive advantage. The use of the right logistics and supply chain strategies helps not to only improve the quality and service of the hotel company, but drive down costs. For staff in this industry, it is crucial to build steady relationships with suppliers and work with a good ordering system in order to improve the service level towards customers.

The hotel industry can benefit from the comprehensive and integrated practices of logistics and supply chain management, by delivering a consistently reliable and high quality service at the best costs.

Challenges in the Supply Chain in the hotel industry

The purchase manager is always under constant pressure to meet the user departments’ un- planned needs. As a result the purchase manager always tries to have huge buffer stocks, lest he should fall short of satisfying the hotel operating/user departments. But this does not mean that quality management processes should be totally ignored.

Material Cost: A hotel store deals with huge quantities of the items with very less price. Bulk of the direct material cost is invested in such items. Majority of the consumables of the hotel are of perishable nature due to which one cannot make use of the economies of bulk purchase. This increases the Number of transactions and thereby the transaction costs. This results in increased transaction costs.

Material Ordering Costs: The individual departments normally use manual indents and purchase requisitions independently. In many properties the hotels do not have computerized indenting and purchase requisitions. The consolidation of such indents and requisitions become quite time consuming. The purchase Department is found to place individual orders for same products, due to difficulty in consolidation Even for chain properties where different units are located in the same city, the hotels do not take advantage of bulk purchasing due to the above reasons.

Inventory Holding Costs: The purchase department, in the fear of not being able to give the right items to the user departments on time, stock large quantities of materials. This occupies a large space and there by leads to increase in costs.

Emergency purchase: The purchases are made on the request to the user departments on the spur of the moment, and are regularized later by making the required paper work. Due to lack of planning, emergency purchases are a matter of routine and not due to exception.

Factors affecting supply chain management in Hotel Industry

It is essential to understand that the premise under which the hospitality industry operates is much different from other industries. The industries capital costs are high, operating costs being comparatively lower. The hotel industry has its unique characteristics, like customer centricity, different types of management etc.

• Guest or Customers are the utmost important for the hotel industry; customer satisfaction is of paramount importance to the hotel industry. In the hospitality industry the customer related activities such as food and beverage production and service, housekeeping, Front office management are given utmost importance. The back office operations such as the accounts, purchases, supplies chain management, revenue recording etc. take a back seat.

• Different types of management systems, such as the ownership hotels, franchisees, hotels which are run on operating contracts by chains etc. The different managements systems have different implications on the supply chain management.

• In the hotel industry all the efforts are customer oriented as a result lot of cost reduction which can be attained through improved upstream functions of supply chain management is lost. Current trends in the industry show that computerized property management systems are used but mainly for front office management and reservation systems.

Benefits of Supply Chain Management

• The supplier and the hotel benefit from a well-established system of supply chain management. The relationship between the supplier and hotel becomes stronger because of professional management in the form of development of proper purchasing policies. This could also lead to concentrating on a few trusted suppliers, rather than have a large and inefficient supplier base. Newer and more efficient suppliers could be identified, leading to increased efficiency.
• Itleads to significant reduction in costs and also helps continuous evaluation and improvement in the buying process. It could increase the product range or perhaps reduce it too, because of intensive market research undertaken.
• Improved management information to future requirements

SCM – Strategic methods explained

Supplier Identification: Generally supplier base is huge in the hotel industry, this has its positives, conscious steps should be taken to identify committed suppliers who are willing to go by the objectives of the Organisation, and be involved and appreciate and support the changes of the organizational requirements.

Supplier evaluation and selection: Supplier evaluation is a critical process, suppliers ability to supply the right goods at the right time with correct specifications has to be reviewed. Contracts are awarded after careful negotiations with the supplier.

Supplier management : After the suppliers fulfills its obligation by delivering the required goods as per specifications it’s the responsibility of the Purchase department to ensure suppliers bills are paid promptly , at times good suppliers are lost due to the payment delays. Therefore its very essential to maintain a strong relationship with the supplier hence supplier management has to be strengthened.

Supplier development and improvement: It’s a very crucial step in the supplier chain management. A careful consideration of this process would contribute towards efficiency and cost saving.

Conclusion:

Professional supply chain management ensures every supplier is committed for top quality product and service standards. An efficient supply chain management helps in significant cost reduction by developing and implement contracts and agreements with suppliers of hospitality products and services, securing for the hotels competitive prices be if for food and beverage, rooms or property operations

INTRODUCTION:

GST is globally enshrined as a successful tax reform that will reduce the cascading effect of taxes, ensuring no tax burden on business houses and shifts the complete tax burden on to the end customer or consumer. Seamless Input Tax Credit (ITC) is often lauded as major benefit of GST by tax and economic experts. This is the driving force behind our country in embracing GST. Recently the CGST, IGST, UTSGST, GST Compensation bills are tabled in Parliament. The provisions of CGST bill relating to ITC will act as a litmus test for Government’s commitment towards the objective of conferring seamless credit to business houses. This article aims at bringing some aspects of the provisions relating to ITC which do not go in hand with seamless credit.

ITC AVAILABLE ON ANY SUPPLY USED OR INTENDED TO BE USED IN BUSINESS:

Sub-section (1) of Section 16 of CGST bill provides for entitlement to ITC which is reproduced as under—

“(1) Every registered person shall, subject to such conditions and restrictions as may be prescribed and in the manner specified in section 49, be entitled to take credit of input tax charged on any supply of goods or services or both to him which are used or intended to be used in the course or furtherance of his business and the said amount shall be credited to the electronic credit ledger of such person”

In terms of this section, a registered taxable person can claim ITC on procurement of all goods or services or both when they are used or intended to be used in the course or furtherance of his business. The expression ‘used or intended to be used in the course or furtherance of businesses’ is of wide connotation and this would simply imply that any expenditure which is incurred for the purpose of providing taxable supply of goods or services or both would be eligible for ITC. This is a welcoming move. Unlike the case of CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 (CCR,2004), there are no definitions given for ‘input’, ‘input service’ and ‘capital goods’ which prescribe various conditions for eligibility viz. usage within the factory of production, direct nexus with provision of output service etc. That is to say even these terms appear in GST law, the same are without any conditions or restrictions as were there in earlier law. Thus, under GST regime every expenditure incurred for business would be entitled to ITC.

However, ITC has been barred on various items by way of exclusions under sub-sections (5) of Section 17 of the CGST bill. These items are similar to the exclusions given under the definitions of ‘inputs’, ‘input services’ of present CCR, 2004. Upon closer scrutiny of these exclusion clauses, they are even more detrimental compared to those under CCR, 2004. The comparative analyses of these exclusions are tabulated as under;

ITC ON WORKS CONTRACTS ALLOWED IN CASE OF PLANT & MACHINERY:

Under the present CCR, 2004, credit of service tax/excise duty paid with respect to works contracts for construction of buildings, civil structures or for laying of foundation or making of structures for support of capital goods is not allowed. Credit is allowed only to a works contractor who is in turn providing similar works contract services. However service tax paid on works contract services used for construction of capital goods (other than foundation or support structures) is allowed as credit.

Under the GST regime, the said restriction on availment of ITC on works contract services is retained and ITC is allowed only to the said works contract service that is used for further supply of works contract service. The only exception for this restriction is works contract services relating plant and machinery, where all the receivers of the said supply are entitled to take ITC. For this purpose, the expression ‘Plant and Machinery’ is defined which is reproduced as under—

“plant and machinery” means apparatus, equipment, and machinery fixed to earth by foundation or structural support that are used for making outward supply of goods or services or both and includes such foundation and structural supports but excludes—

• land, building or any other civil structures;
• telecommunication towers; and
• pipelines laid outside the factory premises

In view of this definition, ITC is not available on all types of works contracts relating to capital goods but only those that fit into the definition of plant and machinery. Further, ITC is restricted on works contracts relating to land, buildings, telecommunication towers and pipelines. However on a positive note, works contract services relating to foundation and structural supports for plant and machinery are eligible for ITC which are currently barred from CENVAT credit under CCR, 2004

NO ITC ON INPUTS & CAPITAL GOODS USED IN MANUFACTURE OF ELECTRICITY FOR USE IN PRODUCTION:

Electricity is not excisable goods but yet CENVAT Credit is allowed under the present CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 on inputs used in manufacture of electricity that is captively consumed in factory for production of dutiable goods. Electricity is going to be outside the GST tax net as they continue to be subjected to tax by electricity duty by States. There is no corresponding provision under the model GST law to prescribe for availing ITC on inputs and capital goods used in manufacture of electricity for captive consumption to manufacture goods that are subject to GST. In such absence, manufacturers cannot avail ITC of such inputs and capital goods which they are allowed to do so under the current regime. This will certainly shoots up the cost of the goods and thereby contributes to the cascading effect which is against the objective of GST.

ITC ON PRE-REGISTRATION EXPENSES— ELIGIBLE ONLY UPON TIMELY REGISTRATION:

Unlike the present Central Excise and Service Tax laws, ITC under GST regime is allowed only if the assesse is registered under GST at the time of procuring goods or services. In case of any procurement prior to registration, ITC can be claimed only in accordance with the manner provided under Section 18(1) of the CGST bill which is reproduced as under—“A person who has applied for registration under the Act within thirty days from the date on which he becomes liable to registration and has been granted such registration shall, subject to such conditions and restrictions as may be prescribed, be entitled to take credit of input tax in respect of inputs held in stock and inputs contained in semi-finished or finished goods held in stock on the day immediately preceding the date from which he becomes liable to pay tax under the provisions of this Act.”

In view of the above provisions, ITC relating to procurements prior to GST registration will be allowed only if GST registration is sought within the stipulated time period of 30 days from the date on which the assesse is liable for registration and the registration has been granted. In case of delay in applying the registration beyond the stipulated period, it seems that this provision is barring the assesse to claim ITC on expenditure incurred prior to registration.

Further, the section allows the assesse to claim ITC only to the extent relating to inputs held in stock and inputs contained in semi-finished or finished goods held in stock on the day immediately preceding the date from which he becomes liable for registration. This implies that there is no enabling provision to avail ITC relating to input services (otherwise related to stock) and capital goods that are procured prior to registration even though registration is obtained within the stipulated time period.

The condition of mandatory registration at the time of procurement is quite understandable as credit availment under GST regime is under a controlled electronic environment as supplier has to accept the corresponding liability and pay the tax by disclosing the said supply in his monthly GST returns.However this should not by any means operate as hindrance to deny credit to an assesse who failed to obtain registration within the stipulated time period.

It is advisable to prescribe a suitable mechanism to bring the procurements prior to GST registration under the said controlled electronic environment and allow assesseto avail the ITC. May be the fresh registrant is permitted to file a return immediately after registration with information relating to his procurements and ITC shall be allowed only when such information is matched with that the corresponding supplier.

ITC AVAILMENT ON GOODS NOT IN ALIGNMENT WITH TIME OF SUPPLY:

There is no concept of time of supply for goods either under VAT or Excise laws under the existing regime. The concept of point of taxation (akin to time of supply) is prevalent under Finance Act, 1994. The CCR, 2004 provides for availment of CENVAT Credit by receiver of services in case where he has paid advances towards taxable services and service tax is charged on such advances by the provider of services.

In terms of section 12 and section 13 of the CGST Bill, the liability to pay GST arises at the time of supply of goods or services which in general is the earlier of the date of issue of invoice (the prescribed last date for such issuance in the event invoice not issued) or the date on which supplier receives the payment with respect to the supply.

Subsection (2) of Section 16 of the CGST Bill provides for the conditions to be satisfied by registered taxable person in order to be entitled to ITC in respect of supply of goods or services. The relevant part of the section is reproduced as under;

“Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, but subject to the provisions of section 36, no registered taxable person shall be entitled to the credit of any input tax in respect of any supply of goods and/or services to him unless,-

• he is in possession of a tax invoice or debit note issued by a supplier registered under this Act, or such other taxpaying document(s) as may be prescribed;

• he has received the goods and/or services;

• the tax charged in respect of such supply has been actually paid to the account of the appropriate Government, either in cash or through utilization of input tax credit admissible in respect of the said supply; and

• he has furnished the return under section 34:

PROVIDED that where the goods against an invoice are received in lots or instalments, the registered taxable person shall be entitled to take credit upon receipt of the last lot or installment:

PROVIDED FURTHER that where a recipient fails to pay to the supplier of services, the amount towards the value of supply of services along with tax payable thereon within a period of three months from the date of issue of invoice by the supplier, an amount equal to the input tax credit availed by the recipient shall be added to his output tax liability, along with interest thereon, in the manner as may be prescribed.

Explanation.—For the purpose of clause (b), it shall be deemed that the taxable person has received the goods where the goods are delivered by the supplier to a recipient or any other person on the direction of such taxable person, whether acting as an agent or otherwise, before or during movement of goods, either by way of transfer of documents of title to goods or otherwise“

In terms of the above reproduced section, a registered taxable person is allowed to take ITC only upon receipt of goods or services apart from holding invoice, filing the return, tax charged has been paid by supplier etc. In cases where advances are given towards the taxable supply of goods or services, though the tax has been paid upon such advances by virtue of the provisions of time of supply, the receiver cannot avail ITC immediately and can only avail ITC after the receipt of goods or services.

This intention is further clearly evident from the first proviso of said section 16(2), which provides that in case where goods are received in lots or installments, ITC can be availed only upon the receipt of last lot or installment. Thus under GST regime, ITC cannot be availed immediately upon payment of tax towards advances paid towards supply of taxable goods or services. The recipient of supply has to wait till receipt of goods or services to avail ITC. This may cause undue hardship and may have a bearing on working capital of business houses.

REVERSE CHARGE IS AN EXEMPTED SUPPLY:

Sub-section (2) of section 17 of the Revised Model GST law provides for reversal of proportionate ITC in case where the registered taxable person is engaged in providing both taxable and exempted supply. The said provision is reproduced as under;

“Where the goods and / or services are used by the registered taxable person partly for effecting taxable supplies including zero-rated supplies under this Act or under the IGST Act, 2016 and partly for effecting exempt supplies under the said Acts, the amount of credit shall be restricted to so much of the input tax as is attributable to the said taxable supplies including zero-rated supplies.

• The value of exempt supply under sub-section (2) shall be such as may be prescribed, and shall include supplies on which the recipient is liable to pay tax on reverse charge basis, transactions in securities, sale of land and, subject to clause (b) of paragraph 5 of Schedule II, sale of building

Under the present Service Tax laws, a service for which reverse charge is applicable cannot be treated as an exempt service and there is no requirement to reverse the common CENVAT Credit on proportionate basis. However under GST regime, in terms of the above reproduced sub-section (3), exempt supplies include those supplies provided by a registered taxable person for which GST is required to be paid by recipient of supply under reverse charge mechanism.

In such event, the registered taxable person is required to reverse a portion of ITC though he is engaged in providing those supplies which are subject to GST payable either by him or by the recipient of supply. This will also mean that with respect to supplies that are going to be notified under GST for reverse charge, Government on one hand is going to get the revenue in full on such supplies and on the other hand it will deny the ITC by requiring the corresponding supplier to restrict ITC. This requirement of reversal of ITC by supplier to extent of his supplies covered under reverse charge would break the ITC chain and contribute to the cascading effect. This provision requires reconsideration in light of the spirit behind GST (seamless credit).

CONCLUSION:

In view of the above discussion, it is amply clear that the provisions of ITC under the CGST Bills incorporated enough hurdles to restrict the free flow of credit and some of the provisions are even more detrimental in denying ITC as compared to the current CCR, 2004.Thus seamless credit, the much hyped benefit of GST is seemingly still out of reach for business houses. Industry, trade and professional bodies have to make suitable representations in this regard and GST Council, Centre and State Governments have to re-consider these in fair manner after all the reason for introduction of GST is to overcome the trade barriers and reduce the cascading effectthereby encouraging the industry for voluntary and prompt tax compliance.