GST casts a shadow on college annual fests

GST casts a shadow on college annual fests

Pune: As the colleges are gearing up for their annual festivals, they have to work double on their budget as the Goods and Service Tax (GST) has kept them on their toes. The organisers had to struggle to find sponsorship and crack better deals with vendors.

“Due to GST, our entire budget has been shaken. The major problem we are facing is the small vendors who provide chairs, water bottles or equipment for set production like lights etc,  have not started implementing the GST. So we have to cancel those vendors and find new ones who can provide us with proper bills inclusive of GST. In this process, we also lose a chance to negotiate for discounts on a few purchases,” said Karan Singh, General Secretary of Students’ Council at Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT). The students also stated they had to rework their finance by forming a new format and making changes according to GST.

“It was very difficult to get sponsorships at first as most of the companies had replied that budget of marketing department had crunched due to GST, while some said they have not revised their budget after GST came into effect,” said Avichal Agarwal, Finance Head of Cultural Fest at College of Engineering, Pune.

“And it was difficult for them to allot money to us. One of the major problems we faced was, we had to spend extra money on purchases we made as taxes differed on every purchase from 18 per cent to 28 per cent. Tracking the calculation of expenses was a task,” he added.

Another student from Symbiosis Centre of Management Studies (SCMS), Roohi Devgan who is also an Executive Committee member of Sympulse said, “We have had to make considerable changes in all the procedures that include money like we had to hike the registration fees for participants and other visitors attending the fest. Accounts have been a little difficult to manage as calculations have to be done carefully and made sure GST is charged accordingly. This has certainly been tasking.”

Difficulties faced by the students

  • Finding companies who have revised their budget for sponsorships to be given for the college fests.
  • Finding vendors who have been giving bills according to GST norms.
  • Managing the budget at the same time maintaining the grandeur of the fest.

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