Raipur, Apr 25: Fragmented procedures & compliance have greatly distorted the inherent beauty of GST. The experience of about 4 months of GST implementation in the Country requires an overall review of not only the tax rates but even the prescribed procedures as well. Weaknesses, leakages, loopholes of GST need to be plugged. Correction of error in classification of goods in different tax slabs particularly under tax slab of 28% besides removing anomalies and disparities to make it a simple and good taxation system which may comply with two basic fundamentals of GST i.e widening of tax base & encouragement to voluntary compliance, said CAIT National President Mr. B.C. Bhartia and Secretary General Mr. Praveen Khandelwal while speaking to the scribes here.
They also demanded to form National Trade Policy for Retail sector and a separate ministry to be constituted for internal retail trade. It has also opposed 100% FDI in retail trade. CAIT office bearers alleged that Government funding under Mundra scheme has not reached its actual beneficiaries.
They added that with GST portal not functioning properly, overlapping of laws, short term measures to provide relief, much lack of awareness about prescribed fundamentals and compliance thereof, variation of tax rates in items pertaining to same vertical, applicability of HSN code for everyone whether big or small, absence of any nodal authority to provide legitimate answers to the queries has multiplied uncertainty about GST and as such it will be appropriate if immediate steps are taken to set the things right. They said that CAIT panels has suggested some immediate measures including abolition of Reverse Charge Mechanism, application of E Way Bill only on inter-state transactions, Mr Amar Parwani said that quarterly returns for turnover up to Rs 100 crore and monthly return for turnover of more than 100 crore turnover, Applicability of HSN Code only on Manufacturers, No tax liability on purchaser if seller does not deposit Tax collected by him, Formation of a GST LokPal, Representation to traders in GST Council, Formation of Joint Committee of Government Officials at Centre, State and District level to monitor & regulate GST system, Revisiting 28% tax slab which should be limited to only luxurious & demerit goods, re-classification of goods falling under other tax slabs , no penal action till 31st March 2018 for late filing of returns or other genuine issues.
An internal panel of CAIT headed by its National Vice President Mr. Amar Parwani has recommended that now the time has come when the Government should move forward to make GST a stable taxation system by conducting an overall review of GST structure & take remedial measures.
No direct communication of the Government with the trading community so far is the root cause for chaos and confusion and as such a permanent mechanism needs to be formed to make regular inter-action both at Centre & State levels-opined the panel. On the occasion Brijmohan Agrawal, National Vice President, Mangelal Malu, State Working President, Jitendra Doshi, State Secretary, Parmanand Jain, State Working Secretary and other office bearers of CAIT were present.
