The issue of goods and services tax (GST) on the interplay of transactions between a bank or Unified Payments Interface (UPI) gateway and an e-commerce portal/shop is increasingly coming up for examination in the course of assessments.
Customers who use a particular credit card or UPI gateway while shopping get an outright discount or a cashback offer. A full or part reimbursement of this incentive by the bank to the e-portal or even a joint arrangement between the two parties (which could be considered a barter of services) is likely to attract GST, say tax experts.
A few government officials TOI spoke to said the argument that the discount/cash-back is available to the end customer and hence there should be no GST on the transactions between bank/UPI payment gateway and the eportal typically holds no weight.