this story originally appeared in on jul 17 2017bengaluru a fortnight into the goods and services tax gst regime sellers and online marketplaces continue to assess the impact of the new tax while some of them have adopted a waitandwatch policy many others whose margins could be hit are holdings talks with brands or vendors the initial dip in seller numbers by 2030 across marketplaces indicates the waitandwatch strategy being adopted by some on the margins their businesses are likely to make on the ecommerce platforms though the feedback from different marketplaces highlights gst as a beneficial tax in the long run for the input tax credit given to sellers there has been no revision in the margins or commissions paid by sellers to ecommerce platforms this has seen sellers negotiating with brands and vendors they work with to ensure better margins on the flipkart platform 95 of our topsellers are gst compliant very few sellers have dropped off the marketplace and it has been business as usual with the number of active sellers in a month remaining constant on the platform said nishant gupta director of marketplace on flipkart sellers in the categories where margins will go down are having parallel conversations with us and the brands or vendors they work with for payment in the medium to long term prices will reduce when the tax credit system kicks in he added flipkart on last count had little over 1lakh sellers without disclosing the number of active sellers right nowpaytm mall the ecommerce entity of paytm recently delisted 85000 sellers for noncompliance with certain norms laid down by the company though none were barred from selling for not producing gstin registration no sellers were delisted due to noncompliance of gstin we have not revised our margins or service fee post gst though our service charge now carries a gst component said amit sinha coo of paytm mall the sellers who have dropped out of selling on the marketplaces include longtail retailers and those running small businesses most of the sellers who have been selling from small setups have opted out of selling on ecommerce platforms due to lack of stocks as we are the importers and wholesalers for most of our products on online platforms we are able to absorb the new tax rates from our margins said shaival gandhi who owns pace sports an entity selling sports goods kids toys and lifestyle products across major marketplaces he added that the increase in tax from 5 vat to 12 under gst for a category like toys will lead to price rise in the long run especially where retailers are selling at a margin on the marketplace we have been negotiating with the brands we procure and sell from as our margin on sale for the smartphone category has come down to 1 instead of 2 we used to make earlier gst on tablets is also high at 18 from a marketplaces view we will get the input tax credit